Stroke of Conscience
by Catie Kerwood
Summary: Something is trying to contact Ronon Dex, sending him thoughts and images that confuse him and pleadings for help. When it starts to take a toll on him physically and mentally, his friends vow to find whatever's doing this and put a stop to it.
1. Chapter 1

"_Ronon…"_ the man stirred in his sleep. _"Ronon Dex…"_ the soft female voice brushed against his subconscious mind. _"Ronon!"_ Ronon jolted awake, sitting up his bed with his gun in his hand set to kill, scanning the room for the owner of the voice. Seeing no one, he lay back down, the gun lying across his bare chest. Sliding it back into the holster on his bedside table, he ran a hand over his face, more than a little confused.

"Morning." John grumbled as he sat down at the table across from him.

"Morning." Ronon echoed as he ate his bacon and eggs, taking a sip from his glass of orange juice.

"You okay?" John asked, starting on his own breakfast. "You look a little…"

"Didn't get much sleep last night, kept having weird dreams." Ronon said.

"You didn't touch any glowing rocks lately have you?" John asked and he gave him a look. "Had to ask."

"_Ronon…"_ A spike of pain lanced across Ronon's mind, giving him in the image of the inside of a Wraith Hive ship. Strength suddenly left him and his limbs shook. _"Please…Ronon."_ He cried out as another blinding spike of pain seared through his brain. He never felt this kind of pain before, he felt as if his brain was going to explode, the pressure building inside of his skull.

"Ronon!" John exclaimed as Ronon collapsed sideways off the chair and to the floor, his hands clutching his head, blood trickling from the corners of his eyes. "Med team to the mess hall!" He knelt by his fallen friend, unsure of what to do. "Hang on, buddy, just hang on." The man's body, which had almost been convulsing, suddenly went slack as he went unconscious.

Ronon woke to an EKG machine beeping. A strange lethargy had taken over his body, making him struggle to open his eyes.

"Welcome back." He looked over, seeing John and Teyla standing at his bedside. "You had us worried there for a minute."

"What happened?" Ronon asked.

"Doctor Keller is trying to figure that out as we speak." Teyla said, grasping his hand in an attempt to comfort him.

"You had a seizure of some kind right in the middle of the mess hall." John said.

"Seizure?"

"Your brain went on the fritz." John said explaining.

"My head is pounding." Ronon said, rubbing the heel of his hand into his forehead.

"Apparently that's a side effect of the seizure." John said.

"Look who's awake." They all looked over to see Doctor Keller walk into the observation room. "Do you mind if I do a couple tests to make sure nothing was damaged?"

"Go ahead." Ronon said and she got out her penlight, shining it into his eyes to test pupil response. She started to test his motor function and nerve response and he passed everything no problem, with the exception of minor muscle weakness.

"Everything seems to be fine, but I'd stay off your feet for a while until we figure out what happened. Okay?" She said.

"Okay." Ronon said, not really up for arguing. "I'm going to go back to sleep for a little while, I didn't sleep well last night."

"Get some rest, buddy." John said and Teyla gave him a small smile, squeezing his hand briefly. Ronon closed his eyes and was soon asleep.

"Can you hazard a guess on what caused his brain to short out?" John asked as they left the room and Keller looked at him.

"We scanned his brain wave activity when he first came in and noticed that there was a part of his brain that was in overload."

"What part?"

"The part that we don't use, I compared it to scans taken of McKay's brain when he was affected by that Ancient device."

"The one that gave him super powers." John said and she nodded.

"They didn't have much in common, accept for that one part. Some scientists believe that that part of the brain, if activated, could allow the person to communicate telepathically." She said and there was thoughtful silence as they took this in. "I did another scan a short while before he woke up, and that portion was dormant again."

"So…what?" John asked.

"I think someone, or something tried to communicate with Ronon telepathically and it overloaded his brain. We aren't meant to be able to communicate like that in this stage of our evolution, and apparently this is one of the side effects if it's forced on us suddenly."

"So someone attacked Ronon with their mind."

"I don't think they were attacking him. This person, or thing could have turned him into a vegetable if they wanted to, or kill him by bursting a blood vessel in his brain, I'm certain of it. No, I think they were trying to send him a message." She said.

"What message?" Teyla asked.

"They only person who knows that is Ronon, assuming he got it at all, his brain might have shut down to protect him from it before he ever got it." She said and John looked into the observation room at Ronon asleep on the bed.

_He was being dragged down a Hive ship hallway by a Wraith soldier on either side. His body was weak and there was a terrible hunger gnawing at his insides, beating at his mind to feed. Dragged to a main room, he was forced to his knees in front of a Wraith Queen._

"_How long has it been," she started. "Since you last fed? Too long, I venture."_

"_I won't do it. Not for you, not for anyone." His voice was different, slightly higher pitched but still gravelly and rough, as if he hadn't used it for ages. "I will not be your entertainment."_

"_I can feel your hunger." The Queen said. "Bring it in." a human woman was pulled kicking into the room. She was making a valiant effort to break free, but she was over powered by the drones and was pushed to her knees in front of him. The Queen stood behind the woman, looking down at him. "Feed. If not for me, then to sustain yourself."_

"_No. I won't do it. I'm not a killer!" an intoxicating aroma was coming from the woman, making the hunger inside him grow tenfold. There was a strange tugging in his mouth and he ran his tongue over his teeth._

"_That is exactly what you are. Now feed!"_

"_No!"_

"_It won't save her, this human. If you won't feed on her, I will give her to one of my soldiers."_

"_I won't kill her." He said and looked at the woman. She had started to cry, tears creating streaks in the dirt on her face. The Queen pushed her forward and he caught her in his arms, the smell coming from her intensified as she clung to him, seeking safety in him from the Wraith around them._

"_Please." She sobbed and he pushed her away, scrambling backwards until his back hit the wall. She fell to the floor, reached out to him. "Please don't leave me to them!"_

"_I'm sorry." He said. "I can't…"The Queen descended on her and he clasped his hands over his ears to block out her screams of pain and terror._

Ronon snapped out of the dream with a yell, his heart racing and a cold sweat soaking his skin. Nurses and Doctor Keller rushed into the room at his shout and he fought off their seeking hands at first, disorientated.

"Ronon!" Keller yelled. "It's okay! You're in the infirmary!" she said and he looked at her.

"The infirmary?" he asked stilling, his mind confused and reeling.

"Yes." She said gently. "What do you remember?"

"Pain, lots of pain." He said as the nurses began taking his vital signs.

"Why did you yell?" Keller asked and he struggled to remember.

"I had a nightmare."

"About?"

"I dreamt I was a Wraith."


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, just for the record, I sort of tweaked things a bit concerning Teyla and her baby. Kanann is still the biological father, but since he's MIA for unknown reasons, John has really taken over the fatherly duties. That and I'm just very pro-SHEYLA, so if those two don't get together in the show, they might as well in fan fiction.

Chapter 2

"_He dreamt he was a Wraith?_" Samantha asked and Jennifer Keller nodded. "He didn't have a nightmare _about_ the Wraith but that he _was_ a Wraith."

"That's what he said, he had a dream that was a Wraith." She said.

"I had such dreams after I went into the mind of the Wraith Queen in the underwater Ancient laboratory," Teyla said from her seat in Colonel Carter's office, her hands resting on her distended stomach. "But as far as we know, Ronon does not carry Wraith DNA."

"He doesn't." Jennifer said. "I looked for the markers in his blood myself when I took a sample for testing."

"Could it be the person who is trying to send him that message you were talking about?" John asked.

"Could a Wraith be trying to contact Ronon?" Sam clarified.

"I don't know why one would except to maybe draw him into a trap, but he told me what happened in the dream and apparently the Wraith was being tortured by a Queen." Jennifer said.

"In what way?" Teyla asked.

"Maybe not _tortured_ per say, but the Wraith was refusing the feed and the Queen was trying to force it to. She even brought in a human woman, but the Wraith refused to kill her. The dream ended with the Queen killing the woman."

"A Wraith refused to feed." John said. "Does that sound off to anyone else? A Wraith having a stroke of conscience?"

"It is most peculiar." Teyla said and suddenly reached out, grabbing John's hand and pressing it to her stomach. Their eyes met and they shared a smile.

"The baby is kicking." John said to the rest of them. Bending down, he pressed a tender kiss to Teyla's forehead and she laced her fingers in his as they lay on her stomach. He dropped down to sit on his haunches, his hand still firmly entwined in hers.

"So, why would a Wraith refuse to feed?" Samantha said.

"Ronon said that the Wraith said that it wasn't a killer, that it wouldn't feed off of the human and be the Queen's "entertainment", whatever that means." Jennifer said.

"How would watching a Wraith feed be entertainment to another Wraith?" John asked.

"Perhaps the Queen enjoys breaking the will of this particular Wraith." Teyla suggested. "It may hate what it is and refuse to feed because of it so the Queen likes to torture it by trying to force it to do something that would harm it."

"Wraith Queens are pretty evil that way." John said. "In the Wraith's defense, words I never thought I'd say by the way, it seems to be resisting pretty well."

"The Iratus Retrovirus is pretty well known among the Hives, it could be that this particular Wraith is trying to contact us in hope that we will find it and administer the Retrovirus." Jennifer said. "Just a thought."

"No, it makes sense. The Hives know that we have the retrovirus capable of turning a Wraith human, if this Wraith does indeed want to be human, but is unable to get away from the Hive its in, then maybe it sees this as its only method of contacting us." Sam said.

"Yeah, but why Ronon? Why not you Colonel, or Doctor Keller, or myself?" John asked.

"Personal preference, maybe." Sam suggested. "It may know of Ronon's history with the Wraith and decided to try to contact him knowing that if all else fails, Ronon won't hesitate to kill it." She theorized. "These are all just assumptions, of course. Or maybe, it has tried before with us but Ronon's mind was the only one it was able to get the message through to. I honestly don't know." She looked at Doctor Keller. "Jennifer, are these dreams having a physical impact on him?"

"He's severely disorientated when he wakes up from them and it takes him a little bit to remember where he is and what happened." She said. "Other than that, no."

"What if they get worse and he has another seizure, or he strokes out or something?" John asked.

"I'm hoping it doesn't come to that." Sam said.

"I think the Wraith knew," Jennifer started. "I think it knew that trying to contact Ronon while he was awake injured him, so it's now contacting him when he's asleep. I think that's what these dreams are, the Wraith attempting to make contact."

"Why would that be different?" Teyla asked.

"When you sleep your subconscious takes over and in essence your mind is open. People have claimed to have had visions while asleep that they never would have had when they're awake. It seems that you're most psychically aware when you're asleep as opposed to when you're awake." Jennifer explained. "It's all just a theory, of course, but it certainly supports it. He didn't have a seizure when he had the dream and his brain waves showed normal REM patterns." She touched her radio at her ear. "This is Doctor Keller. I'm on my way." She said into it. "Ronon had another dream."

They followed her out of Colonel Carter's office and down into the infirmary, going into the observation room where Ronon was.

"Hey, how you feeling, buddy?" John asked as Ronon looked over at them when they entered.

"Better." He said.

"Well that's good." John said.

"The dream was different this time." He said to Doctor Keller.

"Different in what way?" she asked.

"There person, the one the Queen tried to get me…I mean the Wraith to feed on. It was a guy this time." He said.

"Are you sure?" Samantha asked and Ronon nodded.

"Any idea on why this is happening?" Ronon said, looking up at the ceiling.

"Can you remember anything else from the dream?" Keller asked.

"Only the hunger, this terrible gnawing hunger in my stomach like I hadn't eaten in days, I've never felt anything like it." Ronon admitted.

"Ronon, we think that the Wraith in your dream, the one who is showing you what its going through is trying to contact us." Carter said.

"Why?"

"We have a theory that it may be trying to get us to find it to give it the retrovirus or kill it at the very least." She explained. "Do you get the feeling that the Wraith hates what it is?" she asked, but Ronon shook his head.

"No, it just hates other Wraith." He said, "It has no problem being Wraith."

"But it refuses to feed."

"It refuses to kill." Ronon said. "So Doctor, when do you think I'll be out of here?" he asked, looking at Doctor Keller.

"I'd like to keep you another day for observation, and then I can release you."

"Great, thanks."

"Okay, everyone out!" she mock commanded. "Ronon needs his rest, not us drilling him about what's going on in that head of his. So out!"

"We're leaving! We're leaving!" John said. "Geez."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Are you sure you're up for this?" John asked as he and Ronon entered the sparring area.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ronon said for what seems like the thousandths time.

"You had a seizure."

"I know."

"You were bleeding from the eyes."

"_I know."_

"I'm just saying…"

"John, if you don't want to do this because you know I'll kick your ass, just say so." Ronon teased and John glared good naturedly at him.

"Hey, I wasn't in the infirmary for three days with gizmos hooked up to my head."

"I feel better than ever. Can we start?" Ronon asked, grabbing bantos rods from the bin.

"Yeah, yeah. I guess so." John said glumly and caught the pair Ronon tossed him. They started to spar, each using moves perfected after long hours of practice and many trips to the infirmary for stitches. John got in a lucky shot to the back of Ronon's leg, forcing the man to go to one knee. One of the rods came down in a strike, but the man suddenly wasn't there. Turning around, he saw Ronon standing behind him, looking around as if he didn't know where he was. "How did you…"

"I don't know."

"It was like one of those blink and you miss it moments." John said to Sam as they stood in her office. "Actually, now that I think about it, I think I did blink. One moment he was right there in front of me, the next he was behind me. I don't know how he did it."

"And he's never displayed this kind of speed before?" Sam asked but John shook his head.

"He's always been quick to respond, but this wasn't like he blocked me, it was like he was in a completely different area in a matter of milliseconds." John said and suddenly snapped his fingers, a look of realization coming over his features. "There are security cameras in the sparring room; they probably caught the whole thing."

"Let's bring up the footage." She said and they walked out of her office and to the control room. "Chuck," she addressed the technician. "Bring up the security footage of the sparring area from 15 minutes ago."

"Yes, Ma'am." Chuck said and began typing on his laptop. "Sending it to the main screen now."

John and Carter watched on the main screen as Ronon and John began to spar.

"You've been practicing." Sam said and John shrugged.

"I need something to do with my time until Teyla has the baby." John said. "Okay, watch closely." He said as the Ronon on the screen was driven to one knee. He vanished from in front of John and appeared again behind him.

"Whoa." Sam said. "Chuck, back it up and slow it down."

"Yes, Colonel Carter." Chuck said and the footage rewound, going back to when Ronon was on one knee. It slowed considerably and they watched as Ronon moved in a barely seen blur to behind John, and then proceeded to look around as if he didn't know how he got there.

"See what I mean?"

"Where's Ronon now?" Sam asked.

"Down in the infirmary getting checked out by Doctor Keller, said he had a headache." John said and she touched the radio at her ear.

"Doctor Keller, this is Colonel Carter. Please respond." She said.

"_This is Doctor Keller."_

"Is Ronon down there with you?"

"_Yes, Colonel, he's getting scanned right now. Do you need him for something?"_

"No, just keep him there, I'm sending a security detail down to keep an eye on him."

"_What's going on?"_

"I'll explain when I get down there, I'm on my way. Carter out."

Doctor Keller met both of them just inside the infirmary doors.

"You want to tell me what's going on and why there's a security detail on Ronon?" she asked as the doors closed behind them.

"There's been a development." Sam said.

"Such as."

"Ronon…moved in a weird way when we were sparring." John said.

"Weird how?" Jennifer asked.

"Too fast for the human eye to see, the security cameras barely picked it up." Sam said and Jennifer's eyes widened slightly.

"He had some muscle fatigue when he came in, but I thought that was just from the seizure." She said as they made their way into the observation room.

"What am I doing here?" Ronon demanded, sounding very annoyed. "I just came in to get something for my headache and now I have a security detail?" he looked at all of their expressions. "What?"

"Ronon, about what happened in the sparring room with John," Samantha started.

"I already told John that I don't know how I did that." He said. "I just did."

"Do you recall feeling anything…out of the ordinary before it happened?" Keller asked but Ronon shook his head.

"No. I felt fine, I just had a headache afterwards." He said. "And that's why I'm here…to get something for my headache." He still sounded annoyed.

"Did you…" Sam started, looking at Keller.

"Yes, and it showed minimal activity in that quadrant of his brain," Keller said. "It's probably what's causing his headache."

"Can I have the pain pills or what?" Ronon asked impatiently.

"I want you to stay here for observation at least a day." Samantha ordered and Ronon groaned, sitting down on the bed.

"At least get rid of the security detail, I promise not to go crazy or anything." Ronon said but Sam hesitated. "Besides, if I really wanted out of here, do you really think they'd be able to stop me?" he leveled his gaze on her and there was a pregnant pause before she looked at the two Marines at the door.

"You're dismissed." She said and they nodded, leaving the room.

"Besides," John started. "I would think you would have gotten used to the whole security detail thing. You had one when you first got here, what with your pastime of taking people hostage and all."

"I've grown out of that phase." Ronon said, smiling slightly.

"Good to know."

"Can I at least have something for my headache?" Ronon asked Keller.

"Give him something in the meantime, but keep an eye on him." Carter said to Keller.

"Is all this really necessary?" Teyla asked as they looked down at Ronon from the observation deck above much later that day. The man was lying on the bed staring up at the ceiling with his hands folded on his stomach. After a while, he got up and started pacing like a caged animal.

"We don't know what's going on with him right now." Keller said. "We don't know if speed is the only ability he acquired, or even if he still has it."

"Could this kill him?" John asked, his hands grasping the handrail tightly, looking down at his friend. Teyla started to rub his back soothingly and he smiled at her shortly before looking back down into the room.

"I suppose, if it continues." Keller said. "Like I said before, we aren't meant to be able to communicate like this in…"

"In this stage of our evolution." John finished, his tone annoyed and she paused, nodding.

"He might have a stroke, an aneurism, or any number of things that would kill him if the Wraith trying to contact him decides to get more…forceful with its efforts of communication." Keller said.

"Is there anything we can do?" Teyla asked.

"Short of finding the Wraith and either giving it the retrovirus or killing it, not really." Jennifer said.

"The lets find the Wraith and kill it." John said.

"That's impossible, all we know is that it's being held on a Hive ship and there are countless Hive ships out there, it'd be impossible to pinpoint its exact location." Samantha said. "For right now, all we can do is monitor his…"

"Condition?" John suggested.

"I didn't want to use that word, but yes, condition." She said. "And be ready incase the worst happens."

"Like what?" John asked, looking at her. "He suddenly drops dead of an aneurism?"

"John…" He looked at Teyla and leaned sideways, putting his head on her shoulder.

"I hate this." He said. "I hate not being able to help my friends."

"I know." She said, stroking his hair.

"Is this what you guys felt like when I got infected by the retrovirus?" he asked. "Helpless?"

"Yes." She said truthfully, looking down at Ronon. The man stopped in his pacing and rubbed at his eyes, shaking his head slightly as if to clear it. "Something is not right." She said right before he collapsed to the floor. Jennifer ran from the deck and into the room, flanked by nurses.

"He's unconscious." She said, looking up at them. "Ronon?" she turned her attention back to him, touching the side of his face lightly. "Ronon can you hear me?" there was no response. "We have to get him off this floor and to the scanner." She said to the nurses around her and two male orderlies grabbed a collapsible stretcher from a cabinet. Ronon was loaded into it and picked up from the floor with considerable strain and carried out of the room.

The rest of them met them in the diagnostic room and watched as Ronon was scanned. John held onto Teyla's hand tightly for support and she laid her head on his shoulder. The scan was finished and they looked at Doctor Keller.

"Well?" Samantha asked.

"I don't know what happened, but according to his biometric scans, he's in a coma."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"What do you mean, he's in a coma?" John demanded.

"He's showing limited brain activity except for that quadrant." She said and turned the screen so they could see it. "See? The green and blue is healthy brain activity."

"There's hardly any." Teyla said.

"Except in the areas that are necessary to keep him alive." Keller said, "And this," She circled an area with her finger. "Is the quadrant I was telling you about."

"Why is it red?" John asked.

"Red is heavy function, it's like his brain shut down all the unimportant areas to…reroute the power to that area." She said.

"Will he come out of this?" Samantha asked.

"I honestly don't know." Keller said. "I guess it's up the Wraith."

"You think the Wraith did this?" Teyla asked.

"What else could have caused this?" Keller asked and they were silent. "I just wish we could see what was going on in there." She said, looking at Ronon.

"We still have that machine, don't we?" John asked. "The one that allows us to go into peoples dreams."

"REM sleep and a comatose state are two different things, I doubt it'll work." Keller said.

"It's worth a shot though, right?" he asked.

"That's just it, I don't know. I hate not knowing, but I don't know. Maybe if he comes out of this…"

"If?" John said. "_If_ he comes out of this? How about _when_ he comes out of it!"

"John." Teyla said and he looked at her and then down.

"Sorry, doc, I just…"

"No, its okay, I understand. I shouldn't have said 'if'." She said. "When he comes out of this, maybe then, but for right now…it's not worth the risk, it might damage him further." She said and he nodded. "He's breathing on his own, and his heart rate is healthy. Whatever this Wraith is doing, it certainly doesn't want him dead, I just think it wants his undivided attention."

"Yeah, sounds like the Wraith." John said.

_The Wraith soldiers dragged him to a lab this time, similar to the one he had been in when they made him a Runner. Implements lined the nearest table top and he growled, something feral and wild rising up inside him. There was the flash of a stunner and electricity coursed through his system. Instead of becoming unconscious, however, he remained aware but unable to move or speak as he was put on an exam table face up._

"_We have studied your anatomy closely for some time now, yes?" A Wraith scientist asked, picking up a scalpel. "But we are still unable to figure out how your…dietary needs sustain you. Your blood is singular, or course, but that rewarded us with no answers, only more questions." He approached the table looming over him, light glinting off the scalpel. "Perhaps the answer is in your digestive tract." He said._

_Ronon was awake and feeling as the Wraith began to slice into him, eventually setting the knife aside to dig his hands into the soft organs, feeling around for something._

"_The lining of your stomach is quite extraordinary, thicker than a humans and more porous. Perhaps you absorb the nutrients you need from your food directly into your system like a human does, but the absorption seems to stop here." His hands moved down, examining the intestine. "The intestine is thick and old, as if you have no need of it anymore. Since we want you alive, I shall not be removing it to examine it further, just in case." He took his hands from him, his skin colored red. After the Wraith placed everything back where it belonged, Ronon felt his skin and muscle start to knit together. "Ah yes, the regenerative properties, they seem advanced even if you don't feed." He said, moving his hand over the now smooth and unbroken skin. "I wonder if they cost you strength, to heal that rapidly." The Wraith said and then smiled at him. "Something for another time." He said. "Take the creature back to its cell."_

The fog cleared and Ronon found himself back in the observation room dressed in the white patient scrubs. The lights above stung his eyes and he had to blink rapidly to clear them. Sitting up, he took the neuro-halo off his head and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Seeing his clothes lying on a counter neatly folded, he focused on them. The room shifted and he was standing in front of them. After getting dressed and leaving the scrubs on the bed, the room shifted again and he was suddenly standing in Colonel Carter's office, his arms crossed over his chest.

Sam jumped up from her chair when she saw him, her eyes wide.

"Ronon." She said.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"How're you…"

"How…long."

"Three days." That didn't seem to faze him in the least bit.

"Sounds about right." He said. "Did I miss anything important?"

"No, it's been slow and uneventful." She said. "Has Doctor Keller checked you out yet?"

"No." Ronon said, thinking it over. He vanished from her office and she touched her radio.

"Jennifer, it's Sam, Ronon is awake and on his way to see you."

"_I know." _Jennifer responded._ "He just got here, scared the living daylights out of me."_

"I'm on my way down."

"_See you in a bit, Keller out."_

"John, it's Carter."

"_Go ahead Colonel."_

"Ronon woke up a little while ago, get Teyla and meet me down in the infirmary."

"_We're on our way. Sheppard out."_

John and Teyla were in the infirmary when Sam got down there. Ronon was sitting on an exam table as Jennifer took his blood pressure.

"We have to find her." Ronon said when she was finished.

"Find who?" Jennifer asked.

"The woman who'd been trying to contact me."

"The one that put you in a coma?" John asked. "Why the hell should we find her?"

"They're torturing her, John." He said and told them of the dream he had while he was under. "She was awake and aware while that Wraith was cutting into her, playing with her insides."

"Oh my god." Jennifer said, looking a little pale. "I know the Wraith are evil, but this…this is just sadistic."

"And you're sure it's a woman?" Samantha asked and he nodded.

"I'm sure of it, I can feel it." He said, "She needs our help. They're being careful not to damage her too much, but she's still refusing to feed and there's only so much a body can take before it gives up."

"Explain the feeding." Teyla said.

"I can't, that's where you guys come in. Do we still have that machine from Stargate Command? The one that lets people go into other peoples dreams?" Ronon asked.

"Buddy, you read my mind." John said.

"Doc, you'll sedate me and hook me and John up to it, hopefully, if I'm right, he'll be able to communicate with her and maybe find out where she is and what she is."

"You mean you don't know?" Sam asked but he shook his head.

"I thought she was a Wraith, but the scientist working on her was trying to figure out how her food source sustained her."

"And since the Wraith know how they live…"

"Exactly. Apparently whatever she gets from people is absorbed through the lining of her stomach." Ronon said and looked at Sam. "My idea sound like a good plan?"

"I'll get things in motion." She said.

"You okay with taking a trip through my mind?" Ronon asked John.

"Just as long as there's no scary monsters." He said and Ronon smiled.

"Well I can't promise that."

"Great."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Colonel Sheppard, Ronon, are you two ready?" Jennifer asked, looking at the two men lying on their own hospital beds, electrodes pressed onto their foreheads.

"As ready as I'll ever be." John said.

"Let's just do this." Ronon said.

"Administering sedative." She said and injected the sedative into the IV hooked into Ronon. It began to take affect almost immediately, his eyes falling closed and his breathing evening out. "There will be a pause until he starts…"John dropped into a trance like state. "Dreaming."

_John looked around the Hive ship he was standing in. Everything had a slightly surreal quality, the edges of things in sharper focus than normal, and the colors profound and vibrant._

"_It's like a Tim Burton movie in here." He said, running his hand along a wall. It didn't feel real, almost as if his hand was going to go right through it. "Definitely a Tim Burton movie." John started walking down the hall, following the sound of booted footsteps. "That it, we're watching _Sweeny Todd_ when this is all over." Wraith soldiers walked right past him, paying him no mind at all. A pair with someone between them was getting closer. When they got close enough he saw the woman being held between them by her arms. Her feet dragged behind her on the floor as if she didn't have enough energy to walk. Looking up, she locked eyes with him. Yes, she definitely looked right at him before looking down, her eyes closing drowsily. He followed them as they took her to a main chamber, a Wraith Queen waiting for them there._

"_Your defiance is starting to tax my patience." The Queen said as the woman was pushed to her knees in front of her. Her body trembled with the effort to stay upright._

"_Sorry I'm such an inconvenience." The woman said. The Queen made a gesture with her hand and a door off to the side opened, soldiers pulling in a man no more than twenty years of age. He was pushed down in front of her._

"_Feed."_

"_No." The woman said. "Kill me."_

"_I won't allow you that luxury. Now feed."_

"_I hope you die, bitch." She said and the Queen snarled. Grabbing a handful of the man's hair, the Queen pulled his head to the side, a small pained sound coming from his mouth._

"_We need you alive and well."_

"_Too bad." She said._

"_Lady," John started, "I'm starting to like you." The Queen looked up from the woman and around the chamber as she heard him._

"_There is someone here, but they are keeping themselves hidden somehow."_

"_You're getting paranoid in your old age." The woman said, drawing the Queen's attention back to her. "One might say you aren't fit to rule." The Queen snarled again and pressed a nail into the mans' neck, blood welling from the spot. "No…" the woman groaned, watching the blood form. John watched as her top lip drew back from her teeth, her canines lengthening into dagger like points._

"_Please, don't…" the man pleaded, seeing this also. The Queen forced him closer and the woman leaned in, looking up at the Queen, nothing human left in her eyes._

"_Go ahead." The Queen said almost gently, as if she were talking to a skittish animal. The woman's hand slid behind the captives head and the Queen's hand slid away. She cradled the back of the mans' head and looped her arm around his torso, pinning his arms to his sides. John tried to look away, but was unable to, knowing what was coming next._

"_Forgive me." The woman whispered right before she struck, sinking her teeth into the mans' neck, making him give out a blood curdling scream of pain. Her mouth began to pull at the wound and her throat convulsed as she swallowed. Her hand clenched in his hair, her teeth grinding into his neck. The dark circles under her eyes faded and her face, which had been thin and gaunt, filled out. Her hair, limp and stringy became a luxurious dark wave, flowing down her back. She pulled away from her meal, letting the victim fall to the floor and her teeth shortened back to normal. The Queen had watched this all, almost transfixed at the sight._

"_Is he alive?" The Queen asked and the woman stood, facing her. The deathly pallor was gone, leaving her looking warm and healthy, her skin soft and smooth._

"_Yes. I will not take his life." The woman said._

"_Will he live?" The Queen asked._

"_If I didn't know that you'll drain his life force out of him after I leave, I would say yes, he'll live." The woman said and the Queen smiled._

"_Our two species are not so different; we both feed on the life force of others."_

"_But my kind, the _Noctin_, can do it without killing. Your victims always die." She emphasized her peoples name and John knew she did it for him to hear and remember._

"_Valid point. Take her back to her cell." The Queen said and the soldiers moved forward._

"_I am much stronger now, I can walk." she said and John once again followed as they left the chamber. A scream reached them right before the door closed._

_She paid him no attention the entire time back to her cell. He followed her in and leaned against the wall as the door closed._

"_I'm sorry you had to see that." She said when the guards left._

"_How can you see me?" John asked._

"_That's complicated." She said, looking at him._

"_We want you to stop what you're doing to Ronon, you're hurting him."_

"_I'm trying not to." she said. "I am much stronger now; he will not be affected as greatly as he has been."_

"_You know, where I'm from, we have a word for someone like you."_

"_Yes? What is it?"_

"_Vampyre."_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"_Vampyre?" she asked, "I have not heard that term for quite some time. Not since I was on Earth."_

"_You were on Earth?" John asked._

"_Several thousand years ago with my people and those you call the Ancients." She said._

"_Are you originally from this galaxy?"_

"_Yes." She said and looked towards the door. "The Queen should not have been able to sense you. I'm shielding you as much as possible at my current strength, but I can only do so much. You much leave now before she becomes suspicious."_

"_But…"_

"_Go now!"_

John jolted out of the trance as he was kicked out of Ronon's mind. He looked over at Ronon, seeing him awake and staring at the ceiling.

"Ronon?" John asked and he looked at him.

"She didn't kill him." He said. "She could have, I felt it, but she didn't."

"No, she didn't."

"She took only enough to get her strength back. She wanted so much to drain him, but she stopped."

"She's not a killer."

"John? Ronon?" Jennifer asked.

"She helped you even though she didn't know you, she distracted the Queen."

"We'll find her Ronon, but first we need to know exactly what she is and where she's from."

"_Noctin_."

"According to what Sheppard saw," Rodney began as they gave him their attention in the briefing room. "The woman displayed characteristics similar to those of a vampyre."

"What is a vampyre?" Teyla asked.

"A mythological creature from Earth that drinks blood to survive," Rodney explained briefly. "Anyway, I did some digging in the Ancient Database and found the species _Noctin._" He pressed a button on the remote in his hand and a planet came up on the screen behind him with a gate address above it. "This is the planet _Nocti_ on the outer edge of this star system, furthest away from the sun. It's an almost perpetually dark planet, only getting about 2 months of sunlight a year, the other 10 months it's eclipsed by an uninhabited planet that doesn't even have its own gate.

There's not much information about the _Noctin_ in the database, which I found translates in our language to 'People of Nocti'. Apparently the Wraith are unable to feed on them because the _Noctin_ don't age and die, but mortally wound them then yes, they'll die. Also, they used to have ships capable of intergalactic travel, very similar to the Ancients. According to records I found, the _Noctin_ traveled out of this galaxy and to Earth, but something happened to their intergalactic hyper drive and they were stranded there for a thousand years or so until the Ancients packed up and left for the Pegasus Galaxy. They hitched a ride back home with them and that is where the legend of the vampyre on Earth came from." Rodney finished.

"Blood sucking aliens from another galaxy." Jennifer said and Rodney nodded.

"Yeah, seems like." He said. "Ancient Scientists went to _Nocti_ and found that their water has the same organic qualities as our blood, but it reacts differently to their system, stopping the aging process and accelerating their healing capabilities. During the time they were stranded on Earth, they rapidly adapted and grew fangs."

"How long can they go without feedings?" Ronon asked.

"Yes, that, that's a little morbid and scary. If they get a full meal they can go weeks until the next time, but if they reserve themselves like the one inside your head did, then I would say she has a couple of days before she'll need to feed again, barring any injury of course which would accelerate her need to feed." Rodney said.

"Did they participate in the war with the Wraith?" Teyla asked.

"Actually, yes they did. There was a _Noctin _scientist working with the Ancients to try to find what makes them immune to Wraith feedings, thus giving them the upper hand in the war. Unfortunately, the scientist was captured and all of the work was destroyed by the Wraith." Rodney said. "The Ancient's rewarded her with a medal of honor and bravery, even though she was most likely killed. Here is a holographic image of her, M'Rhinna Trin." He pressed another button on his remote and the holographic generator started, displaying an image in the center of the room of a woman dressed in a dark uniform of some kind with a red symbol over her breast. Long dark hair framed delicate features and clear blue eyes that tilted upwards at the corners.

"Oh my god." John said, looking at her. "That's her! That's who I saw!"

"Sheppard, this image was recorded ten thousand years ago." Rodney said.

"I know what I saw, and I saw her. That's who the Wraith Queen was torturing." John said.

"Her full title is Marseilles M'Rhinna Trin; Marseilles seems to be the _Noctin_ version of a 'Doctor'." Rodney said. "She was also the Donga, or Chief Commander, of a Military Unit, leading battles against the Wraith."

"So she was a soldier and a scientist?" Sam asked and Rodney nodded.

"She was captured by the Wraith shortly before the war ended and if Sheppard is right, she's been at their mercy for the past 10 millennia." There was a shocked silence as they took this in.

"We _really_ have to find her." John said. "Somehow."

"So this Wraith Queen spent the last 10 thousand years trying to break her, only managing it a handful of times." Sam said.

"She didn't break her." Ronon said, "The Queen wants M'Rhinna to kill and she refuses to when she finally gives in and feeds. She only takes enough to sustain her, but not enough to kill the…donor."

"Who is then killed by the Wraith Queen, somehow I think it would be better if she did kill whoever she was feeding on." Rodney said.

"I was in her mind as much as I was in Ronon's." John said. "That would hurt her more than you know. She doesn't want to be a killer and she's trying very hard not to be."

"Her instinct to kill is very strong. It took everything in her not to rip that mans throat out and gorge herself on his blood." Ronon said and Rodney grimaced.

"Yes, thank you for that lovely visual." He said and Ronon just shrugged nonchalantly. A wide yawn split his face.

"Tired?" Teyla asked and Ronon nodded.

"I've had a rough past few days." He said.

"Colonel Sheppard," Samantha started, looking at him. "Quite frankly, this woman is unpredictable in her efforts to contact us and unpredictability makes me nervous. Until this is resolved, I'm going to suspend your team's gate activity."

"I was just going to suggest that." John said.

"And since the last few days have been hard on all of us, I'm instating a mandatory day of rest starting now and ending tomorrow night, but only for your team."

"We could all use a little extra rest." Teyla said and John looked at her fondly, his lips twisting into a smile.

"Get some sleep everyone." Sam said and they broke the conference.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

M'Rhinna lay on the floor of her cell, her hands folded and lying on her stomach. The floor shook slightly as her guards marched back and forth, the constant sound of their boots beating a sick lullaby into her mind. She lost track of how long she's been in this Hive, but she knew that the war was long since over and that the Lanteans had lost. They were either all dead, or scattered and hiding. She knew nothing of her own kind, only what the Wraith Queen had told her, and her word was hardly something to be trusted. The rhythmic sounds of boots against the floor lulled her to sleep, allowing her to escape to her only sanctuary: her own mind.

_M'Rhinna opened her eyes as the sounds of marching disappeared. Sitting up, she looked around, but there wasn't a Wraith in sight. She got to her feet and the door to her cage opened. She knew she was dreaming, but she had a feeling that she wasn't the one in control of this dream. She didn't like not being in control._

_A dense white fog filled the hallway as she left her cell, chilling the exposed skin of her arms and stomach. Shivering slightly, she rubbed at her arms as goosebumps broke out over her skin. There was a figure in the fog, a large figure coming closer. Now she definitely knew that she wasn't in control of this dream. Could it be another one of her kind trying to contact her? Had others of her people survived the war?_

_The fog parted as the figure got close enough for her to see. It was a man, large and imposing. His tan skin showed no reaction to the chill mist surrounding them. The shirt he was wearing was large on him with a deep V down the front, showing most of his chest, pendants on leather cords nestled in the sparse dark hair covering his chest. Soft leather pants encased his long legs, and a leather belt that was strapped around his trim waist connected to a holster holding a gun of some kind secured around his thigh. The sleeves of the shirt were rolled up showing a tattoo on his left forearm of rows of black triangles, a similar geometric design tattooed into the side of his neck, leather wrist cuffs fastened securely around his wrists. _

_Thick dreadlocks hung around his face and shoulders like a mane, giving him an animal like appearance. A scruffy beard covered his chin and upper lip and green eyes shone almost like two jewels through the mist. Altogether, he looked intimidating and fierce, definitely not someone you want as an enemy._

_M'Rhinna found herself rooted to the spot as he advanced on her, towering over her by several inches, making him have to be well over six feet tall. Her eyes went to his chest, noticing the Wraith feeding scar almost hidden by the pendants. Gathering her courage, she touched it lightly with her fingertips, looking up at him. His large hands came up and cupped her face; hands callused from years of hard work and hard living. His body brushed hers ever so slightly and she was suddenly very aware of him as a woman, the heat from his body caressing her skin as he stood very close to her._

_The blood coursing through the veins under his skin called to her, but she refused to give into that kind of hunger, not with him, he was special. His hands slid from her face to her neck, his thumbs fluttering over the pulse that was beating rapidly at his ministrations._

"_M'Rhinna." His whispered his voice deep and dark. His tone making her think of hot, long nights and sweat soaked bodies. His thumbs pushed at her jaw line, tilting her face up to him more than it already was. Stooping at the shoulders slightly, he shortened the distance between them, meeting her eyes briefly with his own before his lips skimmed over hers with the barest of contact. Heat curled through her system and she found herself relaxing against him, becoming soft and pliant._

_He suddenly broke away with a growl, drawing his weapon and aiming it off to the side, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl. She looked and saw the Wraith Queen standing there looking very amused._

"_Is he another one of your kind?" she asked. M'Rhinna pushed him behind her, his arm extending past her head unwavering as he continued to aim the gun._

"_You will leave him alone."_

"_No, I would sense another one of your kind. He is human, but you've enhanced him somehow." Mindful of the gun aimed at her head, she didn't advance or make a move of any kind._

"_I'm going to find her," he said, stepping around M'Rhinna to advance on the Queen. "I'm going to save her," he pressed the muzzle of the gun against the Queens head between the eyes. "And the next time you see me, it'll look something like this, I promise." The Queen snarled at him._

"_Leave me to her; I can handle her on this battleground." M'Rhinna said._

"_Are you sure?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the Queen._

"_I'm positive." She said. "One more thing."_

"_Yeah?"_

"_What's your name?"_

"_Ronon Dex." He said and vanished from the dream. There was a slight wrenching as the control passed from him to her._

"_I will feed on him in front of you." The Queen began calmly. "And as he dies, you will know it was your fault."_

"_I won't allow that to happen. You forget, the more I feed, the stronger I become. I guess we are similar in that way." She thrust her mind outwards and the Queen screeched in pain from the psychic attack._

Ronon woke gently from the dream but found that his gun was out, his hand wrapped around the butt in a white knuckle grip and the setting on kill. Peeling his fingers from the grip, he set it back to stun and slid it back into the holster. Mentally, he was exhausted from fabricating and controlling the dream, but physically he felt strong.

"_Ronon…"_ her voice whispered through his mind and he felt her hand pass over his chest. Smiling, he sat up and got out of bed, putting clothes on and leaving his room.

M'Rhinna waited in her cell for the Queen's guards to come and get her, knowing the Queen was angry at her for the attack on her. She recalled Ronon's image in her mind and smiled. When she had contacted his mind, she had no idea what he looked like, drawn only by the strength of his mind and the fact that he would do what was necessary if the time came. He was incredibly handsome and exuded an aura of masculinity and strength that surprised her. Just being close to him had made her feel incredibly female, reminding of her of what she has lost these past countless years. She was one the strongest of her kind but she had felt small and delicate when he had towered over her. The way he looked at her…it made her feel wanted. She remembered his promise and her smile widened, holding onto the thought that he would fulfill it at any cost.

The Guards came for her and she got off the floor, the door opening. They grabbed her and dragged her roughly from the cell to face the Queen's wrath.

Ronon practiced moving from one place to another without taking a step for most of the day, stopping during the afternoon for his daily sparring match with John.

"How ya feeling, Chewy?" John asked on their way down to the gym and Ronon smiled.

"I feel great."

"Good nights sleep last night?"

"You could say that." He said shrugging and John gave him a quizzical look.

"What happened?"

"I contact M'Rhinna last night."

"You contacted her and not the other way around."

"Yup."

"Is that even possible."

"Apparently." Ronon said, retrieving the bantos rods. "I made a dream in her mind and controlled it, and came face to face with the Wraith Queen holding her when she decided to drop in right in the middle."

"How did that happen?"

"I don't know. She must have picked up on 'psychic waves' or something like that." Ronon said, twirling one of the rods in his hand after tossing John a pair. "I held my gun to her head and promised that I was going to kill her."

"Probably not the best idea, you know how Wraith Queens can get when you threaten them."

"You think I set up M'Rhinna for trouble?" He asked attacking and John blocked it.

"I think that the Hive is going to be more cautious now about their security." John said pushing away and going into a stance.

"If the Queen took it seriously."

"Very true, they are pretty arrogant." John said. "After all, you are nothing but an insignificant human."

"Got a point." Ronon said and they stopped their conversation as they went through a series of rapid attacks and blocks. "The Queen said that M'Rhinna…modified me somehow." Ronon said.

"And you believe her? She's a Wraith Queen."

"I don't know. I feel different." Ronon said stopping, the rods dropping down as he relaxed his arms and shoulders. "I know it should worry me after everything we've went through over the past couple years, but I feel fine."

"So did I when I was turning into that bug thing." John said.

"I'm not turning into a bug." Ronon said.

"I'm just using that as an example." John said defensively. "You feel fine now, but if big changes start to happen, you may not feel so great."

"The headaches stopped." Ronon said.

"That's one bright side, I guess." John said.

M'Rhinna grunted as she hit the ground after being thrown back into her cell. Her chest burned as it healed itself from the dissection the Wraith Queen had ordered. The scientist had wrapped his hand around her heart and begun to slowly squeeze it. The pain had been unbearable and she had found herself crying out, tinted tears running down her face as he literally began to squeeze the life from her. They had cut into her heart, poking and probing it as it beat. As per the Queen's orders, they had brought her to the edge of death and pulled her back.

"_Next time I will not be so forgiving."_ _She had said as she looked down at her on the operating table._

"_This is forgiving? I wonder what would happen if I really pissed you off."_ _M'Rhinna managed a flippant tone and the Queen snarled giving a look to the scientist whose hand tightened around her heart. M'Rhinna cried out, her body seizing, almost rising completely off the table._

She wiped at the blood trickling out of her mouth and coughed, clotted blood rising from her damaged lungs to taint her mouth. Curling into a ball, her muscles spasmed as she fell into a fitful sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

M'Rhinna gently lowered the young woman to the floor, passing a hand over her hair before standing. She didn't resist this time; she needed to feed after what they had put her through. She felt her chest start to heal again, this time healing completely, the thick scars fading and smoothing over. She swallowed heavily, trying to get the last traces of life sustaining blood out of her mouth.

"We're not so different, you and I." The Queen said. "Admit it."

"I admit nothing." M'Rhinna said, looking at her.

"I will find him this 'Ronon Dex', and when I do, he will pay for his insolence." She said. "You can not protect him."

"You keep saying how you're all big and mighty, but from I've seen it's nothing but talk. You could have killed me a hundred, thousand times over. Why haven't you?"

"I am interested in your physiology." The Queen said truthfully.

"You must know how much of a risk I can be if I ever do escape."

"I have taken precautions."

"Such as?" the Queen just smiled and it was a disconcerting sight.

Ronon ate his food with his usual abandon and felt amusement brush his mind.

"_Do you ever stop eating?"_

"_I'm always hungry."_ He thought back, sending a suggestive tone.

"_Rawr."_ He felt her mind leave his and he smiled into his food.

"What's got you so happy?" he looked up as John and Teyla joined him.

"Nothing, just thinking." Ronon said as they sat down.

"About?" Teyla asked and Ronon shot John a look.

"So," John said, looking at Teyla. "When did the doc say you were due?"

"Not for another month." She said, looking back and forth between the two. "Am I…missing something?"

"Nope, not at all." Ronon said, leveling a look at her.

"Okay, be mysterious." Teyla said.

"Have you decided on a name yet for your son?" Ronon asked.

"I have not." She admitted truthfully. "John and I have been talking it over…but we haven't come up with anything we've both agreed on."

"I still think 'Ronon' would be a good name." Ronon said and she laughed.

"Rodney has suggested his name, but I politely turned him down." She said and John grimaced.

"I would never make that kid suffer that much by naming him 'Rodney'." He said.

"I was thinking Tagan." Teyla said.

"Tagan?" John asked.

"It was my fathers' name."

"Can that be his middle name?" John asked.

"Middle name?"

"Most people on Earth have two names, like my full name is Jonathan Alexander Sheppard." John explained.

"Alexander?" Ronon asked, grinning.

"Shut up, he was an infamous conqueror on Earth over a thousand years ago, they called him Alexander the Great." He said. "The only reason it's not my first name is because my mother insisted that I be named after my grandfather, General Jonathan Wright."

"Alexander." Ronon said to Teyla making her giggle.

"What was your fathers' name, Alexander?" Teyla asked, smiling.

"David." John said, ignoring the tease.

"David Tagan Emmagen-Sheppard." Teyla said and thought about it for a second. "I like it."

"You really want to give the baby my last name?" John asked.

"Well…yes, unless you don't want me to."

"It's not that, it's just…you're giving the baby my last name." he said.

"As far as I'm concerned, you are this baby's father." Teyla said and John beamed. Leaning sideways, she rested on his shoulder, looking up at him. He cupped her cheek in his hand and kissed her gently.

"You two are so adorable." Ronon said smiling. "I always knew you two would hook up."

"We need to get Ronon a girlfriend." John said gently to Teyla. "Got any friends he might like?"

"Well…" Teyla began, looking Ronon over.

"Stop right there." Ronon said interrupting her train of thought. "I'm fine." He stood, picking up his empty tray. "Really."

"We're just trying to help you out." John said.

"Yeah, I know. See you in the gym later?"

"I was hoping you forgot." John said and Ronon just smiled before leaving the mess hall.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Ronon kept his head down as the three Marines around him circled closer. Concentrating, the room shifted and he reappeared in front of one of them, knocking him out with a powerful blow. It shifted again, but this time they were ready for when he showed up again. He blocked and delivered blows too fast for the eye to see and within seconds the other two joined the first on the mat.

"You didn't even break a sweat." John said and Ronon vanished, reappearing in front of his things sitting on the ledge by the inset window. "Now you're just showing off."

"Your turn." Ronon said with a grin.

"Okay, but don't use that speed thing, it's an unfair advantage."

"In battle, no advantage is unfair." Ronon pointed out.

"Just try not to kick my ass too badly." John said.

"I'll try." He said smiling and they began.

Jennifer looked up from her computer as John and Ronon entered the infirmary, a trail of blood creating a line down the side of John's face from the cut above his eyebrow.

"Not again!" she exclaimed. "You two are dangerous to each other."

"Sorry doc, I tried to ease up on him." Ronon said unapologetically as John hopped up on an exam table.

"Well, you're going to need stitches." She said as she looked at the wound.

"Great." John said.

"Go ahead and lay down while I get what I need." She said and he swung his legs up onto the bed, laying back.

"You don't have to stick around." John said.

"You sure?" Ronon asked and John nodded.

"Yeah, get lost." He said as Jennifer came back with a tray of implements.

"I'll be in the mess when you're done." Ronon said and left the infirmary.

"How is he?" she asked John.

"He seems okay, not freaked out or anything about his new ability." John said, wincing as she applied anesthetic to the area after cleaning up the blood.

"It may not be permanent."

"We talked about that, actually." John said. "He has a theory that she gave him this ability because she knows that he'll need it when we finally find her."

"M'Rhinna?"

"Yep."

"Not a bad theory certainly makes sense." Jennifer said, carefully starting to stitch the wound.

"What was with that coma?" John asked.

"I did a scan after he came out of his coma."

"And?"

"The 'psychic' portion of his brain is active and working." Jennifer said.

"So she rewired his brain?" he asked.

"Seems like, and in order for her to do that she had to shut him down so to speak." Jennifer said.

"Still, putting him into a coma is a bit extreme."

"Can't modify something while it's up and running." She said.

"Morbid, but true." John said as Jennifer pressed a bandage over the new stitches. "All done?"

"All done." She said and moved away as he sat up, getting off the gurney. "I don't want to see you or Ronon in here needing stitches for at _least_ a week. Can you give me that? A week?"

"I make no promises." John said unrepentantly.

"Go, get out of my infirmary."

"Yes, ma'am." He said and left the infirmary.

Ronon was just finished eating when John arrived in the mess hall.

"All patched up?" he asked as John sat down.

"Good as new." He said. "Doc and I talked about you."

"Really."

"Really."

"What did you talk about?"

"About your coma."

"What about it?"

"Apparently M'Rhinna rewired your brain."

"Oh really?"

"But something tells me you already knew that."

"Based on everything that's been going on with me lately, I had pretty much guessed."

"You seem to be handling it well."

"I try not to let things I can't change bother me."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"They're going to go to her home planet." Sam looked up from her work at Ronon standing in the doorway.

"What?"

"The Wraith Hive, they're going to go to M'Rhinna's home planet." He repeated. "The scientists want to know how blood keeps her alive and they want to observe it actually being digested. Can't do that while she's feeding on a person…"

"So they're going to get some of her planets water." Sam finished and he nodded. "We haven't really had much luck with Hive ships that have Queens."

"You won't have to face an entire Hive; the Queen will be with her when they go down to the planet."

"How do you know this?" Sam asked and his mind flashed back to the dream he had last night.

"M'Rhinna told me, but she's getting weaker, I can feel it."

"So time is important." He nodded again. "When will they be on the planet?"

"Three days." He said. "They're going to wait until she's so weak she can't move to go there."

"So she doesn't try to escape."

"Exactly." He said.

"I'll tell the others. Two days time, we're going on a rescue mission. We'll use the other day to set up a standpoint."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"You don't have to bother with rescuing her, someone you don't even know, but you are."

"Ronon, she's been at the mercy of the Wraith for the past ten thousand years."

"She's not even human."

"_Ten thousand years_." Sam stressed. "No one deserves that, and she's human enough for me."

"Still…"

"Still nothing, she may have potentially saved Colonel Sheppard's life when she shielded him from the Queen. Who knows what the Queen would have done if she had detected him." Ronon nodded.

"The planet will still be in its dark cycle when the Hive will be there."

"Noted." Sam said. "Two days and we go get her." He nodded and walked out of the office.

"_We're coming for you, M'Rhinna." Ronon said gently, looking down at her in his arms. He was sitting on the floor of her cell with her in his lap, cradled in his arms like a child. He felt how weak she was, her breathing labored and her heart straining. "We've got a plan and we're coming for you."_

"_Ronon?" she asked, looking up at him._

"_Yes?"_

"_This is taking too much out of me; I'm going to shut myself off until we get to my home. You won't be able to communicate with me, but I'll still be there."_

"_Shut yourself off how?"_

"_My heart and lungs will stop and I'll appear to be dead." She said. "But I will be very much alive, just asleep."_

"_This will help you?"_

"_It'll help me conserve my energy."_

"_Then do it." He said and she reached up, touching his cheek gently. Her brow furrowed slightly and she relaxed completely in his arms, her last breath leaving her body. "M'Rhinna?" there was no response. Stooping over, he pressed his ear to her chest, listening to her heart slow and eventually stop altogether. Her body grew cold and it took everything in him not to see her as dead, merely sleeping._

_Looking at her, he ran his hand over her hair and pressed a kiss to her forehead._

Ronon was quiet as they suited up for the mission.

"Is she going to be able to help us with this?" Major Lorne asked. "Run 'psychic interference' or something like that?"

"No." Ronon said. "She'll be dead to it all."

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"She um…went to sleep last night to conserve her strength." Ronon explained and John nodded.

Teyla saw them off through the gate and they looked at their pitch black surroundings as the gate deactivated behind them.

"I can't see my hand in front of my face." John said and caught a glint at the corner of his eye. Two silver spheres glowed through the darkness eerily. "Ronon?"

"Yes?" Ronon asked and the spheres darted to him.

"Is that you?"

"Yes."

"That's just creepy." Lorne said and they put on their night vision goggles. Ronon was standing very still, his eyes glowing. "Can you see?"

"Yes."

"Let's get started, the Hive will be here in a little under a day." John said.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The two teams watched from a secure location near a lake as a Wraith Dart flew over the area, a culling beam leaving behind soldiers, a scientist, and the Queen. M'Rhinna was being carried over one of the soldier's shoulders like a sack.

"Set her down." The Queen ordered and the soldier pulled M'Rhinna from his shoulder, letting her fall to the ground heavily where she lay still.

"_She looks dead._" Lorne said over the radio.

"Radio silence." John ordered. Ronon tried to contact M'Rhinna but found her mind closed to him. He didn't like this. He didn't like this at all.

"Check her." The Queen said and the scientist leaned over her. Ronon felt the exact moment her mind activated. She grabbed the scientist by the hair and buried her face in his neck, the Wraith yelling out as she began to feed.

"Now!" the teams burst from the trees, guns firing and the Wraith returned fire.

"_Colonel Sheppard, this is Colonel Caldwell aboard the Daedelus in orbit. Colonel Carter informed me of your situation. How can we help?_"

"There's a Hive Ship in orbit, if you could handle it that would be great!" John yelled into his radio over the gun shots.

"_Power Asgard weapons." _Caldwell said. "_Good luck, Colonel. Over and out."_

M'Rhinna let the body of the Wraith fall away and got up from the ground, the Wraith blood burning through her system. The Queen looked at her and snarled as her soldiers died around her. M'Rhinna's lips drew back from her teeth, her canines long and dangerous. She looked past the Queen and smiled.

"I win." She said and the Queen turned just in time for Ronon to press his gun against her forehead and pull the trigger. M'Rhinna dodged the blood and gore that exploded from the back of the Queen's head and looked up as an explosion lit the sky, the Hive destroyed.

"M'Rhinna?" Ronon asked and she smiled at him a second before she bent over and was violently sick. She dry heaved for a while as the Wraith blood was purged from her body. John grimaced as he watched this.

"That can't have been pleasant." He said and she looked at him, her eyes glowing like Ronon's.

"No, it wasn't." she said, her voice rough.

"There's a lake nearby if you…" Major Lorne suggested.

"I know, we're by the Capital City, or what once was the Capital City." She said.

"Yeah, we examined the…um…ruins." Lorne said delicately and she nodded.

"How long has it been?" she asked. "Since the war has been over? How many centuries?"

"Ten thousand years." John said.

"_Ten thousand years?_" she asked, looking stricken.

"I'm sorry, but yes." John said and she was silent for a long time. The darkness started to abate slightly and she looked skyward as the sky brightened.

"The sun is coming out." She said faintly. It became bright enough for them to see so they took off their night vision goggles, looking around at their brightened surroundings. The trees and foliage around them were dark purple, the leaves sparkling slightly as if coated with silver dust. The sky above them was deep red in color and the sun shone a dark orange. There was rustling in the trees as animal life woke up, odd bird calls echoing through the forest.

"It's beautiful here." Lorne said, looking around. "Does it get any brighter?"

"No, it pretty much stays at this light for two months until it goes dark again." M'Rhinna said.

"Like perpetual twilight." He said and breathed deep. "It almost smells like mint here."

"It's the trees; they're opening up and breathing in the light." M'Rhinna's and Ronon's eyes had stopped glowing and Ronon was standing very close to her, looking at her. Her eyes closed and she inhaled deeply through her nose, exhaling through her mouth.

"It's so good to be home." She said and went to one of the trees, picking off a shining leaf and putting it in her mouth, starting to chew. "The leaves are sweet." She said around it. "And the juices have regenerative properties." She picked several and handed them out of the soldiers. "Go ahead."

"You only live once." John said and popped the leaf into his mouth, chewing it slowly. "It tingles." He said smiling and she smiled back. Taking his cue, the rest ate their leaves, smiles growing among them.

"It's the coating on the leaf." She said and swallowed hers. "Once it's done you can swallow it, it won't hurt you." John swallowed his leaf.

"I can feel it tingling all the way down." He said and pressed his hand to his stomach.

"Feels cold, doesn't it?" she asked and he nodded, "It's the regenerative properties of the leaf fortifying your immune system."

"Feels kinda nice, actually." Lorne said after swallowing his own leaf.

"There's botanists where we're from who would love to examine some of these trees, maybe take a few samples back and try to grow them." John said.

"The Lanteans tried that when I worked with them during the Wraith War. The trees only survive on this planet because of the solar cycle and the organic properties in the air." M'Rhinna said and smiled when one of the Marines picked another leaf off the tree nearest him and started taking small bites from it, chewing slowly. "Careful, if you eat too many, you'll give yourself a stomachache. Don't have more than two a day."

"Can we take some back with us?" He asked her but she shook her head.

"The moment the leaf is picked the regenerative properties start to rapidly break down so they have to be eaten immediately." She said and he nodded, looking somewhat bereft. They were silent for a while, soaking in the calming qualities of the planet. "You're from Atlantis, aren't you?" she asked finally.

"Yeah, we are." John said and she nodded.

"As much as I love my home planet it brings back a lot of memories, some I would rather forget. I would love to see what you've done with the place." She said and he smirked.

"I think you'll like it, we've added some homey touches." He said as they started to make their way to the gate.

"Well that's good, the Lanteans weren't exactly famed for their personalities." She said and John snorted. Looking back, she met eyes with Ronon who was looking at her almost expectantly. Turning, she walked back and joined him at his side, sliding her arm through his and smiling up at him. "You didn't think I forgot you, did you?"

"Well, I did what you wanted me to. I got you away from that Hive and killed the Queen." Ronon said and she dismissed his statement with a wave of her hand. "You don't need me anymore."

"Ronon, if you ever say something like that again, I'll hit you." She said smiling and he snorted. Sliding her hand down his forearm, she laced her fingers in his, holding his hand loosely.

"Oh, I just remembered, we filled a canteen with the planets water." John said and removed it form his side. He tossed it back to her and she caught it one handed. Looking at the cap, it unscrewed itself and she flipped off the lid with a flick of her wrist, putting the canteen to her lips and taking a long, deep drink. She didn't stop drinking until the canteen was empty and flipped the lid back on, securing it with another look.

"Thank you, I feel better now." She said and tossed it back to John who clipped it back to his side.

"Do you know what you're going to do now you're not being held by that Hive?" Lorne asked and she shrugged.

"My home planet is nothing but forest and ruins now. I don't know where I'm going to go or what I'm going to do." She said truthfully.

"You could always stay with us on Atlantis." Ronon suggested and she looked at him. "Besides the Ancestors, you know the most about it."

"That is very true." She said. "But I don't know. I had a lot of friends and colleagues on Atlantis, and they're all gone now." They arrived at the gate and John began to punch into the coordinates, the gate activating. M'Rhinna looked at it once before stepping through.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Colonel Carter and Teyla were waiting for them when they stepped out of the gate, it shutting down when the last man was through.

"M'Rhinna Trin, my name is Colonel Carter. Welcome back to Atlantis." She said and M'Rhinna looked around.

"I like what you've done with it." She said and Sam smiled.

"I assume a tour wouldn't be necessary?"

"I wouldn't turn one down, it has been a very long time since I've been here." She said. "But first, is there somewhere I can clean up?"

"Of course." Sam said.

"I will show her." Teyla said. "I am Teyla Emmagen."

"Of the Athosians." M'Rhinna said and they looked at her in surprise. "There were whispers among the Hive of a group of people inhabiting the Lantean home along with an Athosian and a Satedan." She said. "Since Ronon is the Satedan that would make you the Athosian."

"Yes, indeed I am from Athos." She said. "If you follow me please."

"Of course." She cast a brief glance at Ronon before letting go of his hand and following Teyla off into the city.

They walked in silence for a while as she looked around the city, seeing all of the things they had changed.

"When are you due?" she asked Teyla.

"Not for another month." Teyla said.

"Your son has an interesting sense of humor." She said and Teyla looked at her wide eyed. "Don't worry, he contacted me. He has very strong telepathic abilities for a human, I also sense some Wraith in him."

"My people call it The Gift, when a person is born with Wraith DNA. The biological father and I both carry such Gift." Teyla said and M'Rhinna nodded.

"He wants very much to meet the man you care deeply for, he knows that it's not the man who fathered him, but the man that has been with you since you found out you were pregnant." She said and her brow furrowed. "You call him John."

"Colonel Sheppard, yes." Teyla said and M'Rhinna snorted. "What?"

"Like I said, he has a very interesting sense of humor." She said and smiled at her. "I think I can find my way from here, thank you for taking me this far." She walked away without another word, leaving Teyla to look after her.

When M'Rhinna walked into Colonel Carter's office she was clean and her long hair was twisted and secured into an intricate knot behind her head. The Wraith clothes she had been wearing were gone and she was dressed in a base civilian uniform, a black t-shirt under the jacket and combat boots on her feet. She looked pale and weak, dark circles under her eyes.

"Please, have a seat." Sam said gesturing to an empty chair and M'Rhinna sat down heavily in it, giving out a sigh. "You don't look so good. How are you feeling?"

"Tired and hungry." She said, her voice low and dull.

"About that hunger thing…"

"I'm not going to go around the city munching on people, if that's what you're worried about." She said.

"It's not that, it's just…we have the means to make trips back and forth from your home planet, but we don't really have anywhere to store a large quantity of the water as of right now." Sam said.

"What do you propose?"

"I've already made the request for the equipment, but it will take 3 weeks for us to get a retrieval and containment unit large enough to store a vast quantity of your planet's water supply. Until we can get it, you may have to drink human blood to sustain yourself. Or make daily trips through the gate to your home world."

"I've been drinking nothing but human blood for the past ten millennia three weeks will be nothing to me." M'Rhinna said and Sam nodded.

"Very well, if you go down to the infirmary, Dr. Keller will supply you with what you need."

"May I make a request?"

"Go ahead."

"I would like to go back to my home world to get some clothes. These are fine, but…"

"You would like to dress in the clothes of your people." Sam finished and she nodded.

"If it's not too much to ask."

"Not at all, get your strength back and you and Colonel Sheppard and his team can go back to the planet. Get whatever you need there."

"Thank you Colonel Carter." She said. "You and your people have done so much for me and asked for nothing in return, even though you know almost nothing about me. I am truly indebted to you."

"One of our scientists found in Atlantis' database information that _Noctin_ ships are capable of intergalactic travel."

"But unfortunately the Starjump engines burn out quickly if used for extended travel. My kind was stranded on Earth for over a thousand years before we were able to leave with the Lanteans because of this. I don't see how they would be of any use to you unless your scientists manage to modify the engines somehow." She said. "Trust me, after we were stranded, my team and I worked on the engines to try to get them running again, but we were unsuccessful."

"You were on Earth?"

"Yes."

"How old are you exactly?"

"I'd rather not say; if that's alright with you."

"I can understand, no woman likes to talk about her age." She said and the other woman gave out a small laugh.

"Then again, I am considerably older than the women you know."

"This is very true." Sam said smiling. "What were the Ancients like? I've met a couple of them who were ascended, but you knew the ones that built this city."

"They were very clinical when you first met them, even somewhat cold." She said. "The ones I worked with during the war with the Wraith…" a look of intense sadness passed over her features quickly before she once again wore an impassive mask. "They were good friends."

"Ronon seems to care a lot about you." Sam said and M'Rhinna gave her an embarrassed smile.

"Yeah I don't know how that happened." She said. "It happened so quick. When I was being held on that Hive, I cast my mind out, trying to find anyone that would be able to help me."

"And you found Ronon." Sam said.

"I think we found each other." M'Rhinna said truthfully. "At first I thought he was one of my people because his mind was strong, young, but strong. Then when I realized he was human and what I was doing was causing him intense pain, I…modified his brain slightly."

"The coma." Sam said and she nodded.

"It allowed him to be able to communicate with me as he pleased. He became so adept at it, he was starting to create and control dreams in my mind."

"He's a quick learner."

"Indeed he is." M'Rhinna said and stood from her chair. "Thank you again, Colonel Carter for allowing John, Ronon and the other men to save me from that Hive, and thank you for accommodating me."

"No problem at all. Do you know where the infirmary is? Do I need someone to show you?"

"That will not be necessary. I remember the layout of this city as if no time has passed at all, but thank you for the offer."

"Get your strength back, Donga Trin. Or is it Marseilles Trin?"

"It depends on the setting, but 'M'Rhinna' will suffice."

"Very well, get better M'Rhinna." Sam said and the other woman nodded once before turning and walking out of the office.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Jennifer looked up from her computer as M'Rhinna walked into the infirmary, not paying attention to the nurses and orderlies staring at her as she walked in.

"Word has spread of my…uniqueness?" M'Rhinna asked and Jennifer nodded.

"Dr. Keller." Jennifer said, thrusting her hand out.

"M'Rhinna Trin." She said shaking the doctors' hand and looked around the infirmary. "You have changed much."

"We tried to make every thing human friendly."

"You succeeded." M'Rhinna said and went to the large standing rack filled with medical supplies. "Do you mind if I move this?" she asked, grasping one of the end supports with her hands.

"It's very…" M'Rhinna picked up the end and very carefully swung it out, the metal screeching against the floor. "Heavy." Going behind the rack, she ran her hands along the edges of the panel as if looking for something. "What are you looking for?"

"Something that I just found." She pressed against a small section and it fell back, revealing an electronic pad. She pressed her palm into it and it flashed green once before a door slid back with a hiss of air. She coughed a couple of times as stale air rushed out of the hidden room.

"What the…" Jennifer followed her into the room watching as she waved her hand over command consuls, the large screens and various pieces of Ancient equipment coming to life. "Ms. Trin?"

"M'Rhinna, please." She said absently, distracted by what came up on the screen.

"What is this place?" Jennifer asked and looked at the door as nurses and other scientists came into the room.

"My lab." M'Rhinna said and looked at the scientists. "Hands in pockets." She said and the scientists jammed their hands into their pockets, looking at her. "The Lanteans found my research invaluable to the War. Sure, weapons are good in a pinch, but they really wanted to find a way to make so the Wraith couldn't feed on anyone at all."

"Because the Wraith are unable to feed on your people." Jennifer said and M'Rhinna smiled proudly at her.

"That's right. So they gave me this lab, hiding it away just in case the Wraith invaded the city."

"So they wouldn't find and destroy your research." Jennifer said and recalled what Rodney had said. "But I thought the Wraith destroyed all of your work when they captured you."

"They only destroyed the research that was on my ship, which was just a continuation of what I started here. Right before I was captured, I managed to transmit my progress to here; these stations have the up to date achievements." She paused. "Well up to date ten thousand years ago." She began to scan over the information written in spiky sigils, a furrow between her brows. "I was close, very close."

"You're going to continue your research?" Jennifer asked and M'Rhinna nodded.

"It's still relevant, unfortunately." She said.

"There was a race of people called the Hoffans who developed a drug that killed the Wraith when they tried to feed on whoever was infected by it."

"I hear a 'but' coming."

"But it also resulted in respiratory failure and death of 50 percent of the humans who received it."

"Of course it did, or else the Wraith would have been wiped out by now." M'Rhinna said. "Humans." She muttered under her breath.

"If you want, I can give you the research I have on it."

"I appreciate the offer, but I don't see how it would help any. If I succeed then the Wraith will be unable to feed at all. The drug poisoned the Wraith, not stopped it from feeding all together. Understand what I'm saying?" she asked and Jennifer nodded. "Colonel Carter mentioned that you might be able to help me with my nutritional predicament?"

"Yes, I have extra blood in storage just in case I need it for transfusions." She said. "I'll just go get some for you."

"Thank you." M'Rhinna said as Jennifer left the lab.

Sam met her as she was walking towards a supply chest.

"I hear she found her lab." She said and Jennifer nodded, opening the cooler hooked to a power supply.

"Do you have a preference as to the blood type?" Jennifer called back and M'Rhinna laughed.

"Not really!" she said and Jennifer took a couple bags of O-Negative out of the cooler, closing and locking it.

"She's going to continue her research." Jennifer said to Sam.

"To isolate in her peoples genetic code what makes the Wraith unable to feed on them." Sam said and Jennifer nodded again.

"She said she was close."

"How close?"

"Very close, according to her."

"Can you do me a favor and keep an eye on her? I'm also going to be sending down Major Lorne and his team to help you."

"Sam?"

"Its not that I don't trust her, if she accomplishes what she's doing it will greatly swing the fight with the Wraith to our favor, but still…"

"You don't know her."

"Yeah, I don't know her and based on her physiology and feeding habits…"

"Better safe than sorry?"

"Exactly."

"Okay, well, I'll keep an eye on her. Technicians have been coming down since she opened her lab back up, and it's only matter of time before Rodney comes down here too, so she and I will never be alone together."

"I don't think she'd hurt you…"

"It's just that you don't want to take that chance, I get it." Jennifer said. "Some of the myths about vampyres on Earth were pretty gruesome and terrifying, I'm a little wary around her myself." Sam nodded and looked around the infirmary.

"Where's Ronon? I thought he'd be here."

"I don't know where he is." Jennifer said truthfully.

Ronon stopped in his run with John to take a drink of water from the bottle in his hand.

"You okay?" John asked and Ronon nodded. "You seem a little…"

"I'm fine." He said shortly and John narrowed his eyes at him.

"M'Rhinna Trin." He said and Ronon froze, his body going statue still. "I get it, man. You weren't expecting to feel…you know…feelings for her." Ronon was silent for a very long time before sighing.

"It scares me." He said. "_She_ scares me."

"M'Rhinna?"

"No, Teyla." Ronon said sarcastically. "Yes, M'Rhinna. You know what? Forget it."

"Ronon…"

"Drop it, John." Ronon said leveling a look at him and John held up his hands in surrender.

"Fine, fine, dropping it." He said and they started to run again. "But you know; you can't keep avoiding her forever."

"I'm not avoiding her."

"Right."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Jennifer?" Rodney looked around the infirmary, two trays with food in his hands.

"In here, Rodney!" he heard and followed the sound of her voice.

"Where did this come from?" he asked, stepping into M'Rhinna's lab.

"It's always been here, it was just hidden." Keller said and took one of the trays from him. "Thank you." She said kissing his cheek and he beamed.

"That's…" he gestured to M'Rhinna at one of the stations.

"Yep, that's her." Jennifer said.

"She's taller than I thought she would be." Rodney said and Jennifer snorted.

"Evan?" M'Rhinna asked and Major Lorne looked at her.

"Yeah?"

"Can you hand me that…" she gestured to a table top lined with instruments. "It's cylindrical and dark blue." He went over to the table top and picked up an implement that almost looked Wraith in design.

"This doo-hickey?" he asked and she looked at him, snorting.

"Yes, Evan, that doo-hickey." She reached out her hand he placed it in her palm. Without a single word to them, she jammed the instrument into the side of her neck, giving out a low grunt of pain. Pulling it away, there was a sick tearing sound and a chuck of her flesh came away on the end of the tool. Blood flowed down her neck, but slowed and stopped quickly, the hole in her neck filling in and the skin sealing over. Reaching next to her, she grabbed a bag of blood that was sitting on the consul and bit into it, draining it quickly. She dropped the bag into the wastebasket at her feet and placed the piece of muscle and skin on a small tray that had popped out of the side of the station. It retracted and information came up on the screen in the same spiky lettering. "That's odd."

"What is?" Jennifer asked, setting her tray aside and joining her.

"I have a compound in my muscle cells that seems Wraith in structure." She said and pressed keys on the station. "The Queen said that she had taken precautions in case I ever escaped. I considered them irrelevant now because the Hive was destroyed and the Queen is dead, so I didn't mention it." She scanned the information on the screen and made a thoughtful noise. "Well that's interesting."

"What?"

"It's very complex in its design to systematically start shutting down my systems until I finally die."

"What?! We need to start working on a way to stop it."

"It's already shut down my immune system, my regenerative abilities will be next." She was very calm and clinical while she was saying this.

"You don't seem very scared."

"That's because I've encountered this before, the Wraith released it as a biological weapon on an outer lying village on _Nocti_ that I had been in. We simply shut down our systems, tricking the enzyme into thinking that it succeeded in its mission and it left our bodies through our exocrine system." She said simply. "The Wraith Queen had no idea that I had previously been infected and the Wraith thought that the enzyme had succeeded in killing us."

"And you'll do the same thing now?" Jennifer asked. "Shut down your system?"

"Naturally." She said.

"How?"

"I will shut down my heart, lungs, and mind and I will appear to be dead. The enzyme will then leave my body. Simple."

"Right, simple."

"I've done this hundreds of times before, Doctor. I try not to do it too much because it leaves my mind closed off to anyone who may try to contact me."

Ronon sat at a table in the far corner of the mess hall, his feet up on a chair and his back against the wall, drinking from a mug of hot chocolate.

"_Ronon?"_ Her voice whispered through his mind but he ignored it. There was a faint feeling of confusion, but he ignored that too. A door in his mind suddenly slammed shut and he set the mug down, running out of the mess hall and to the infirmary. A loud droning sound came from the EKG machine that was hooked up to M'Rhinna and Jennifer shut it off.

"What happened?" he asked.

"She just…died." Keller said. "She laid down on the bed, allowed us to hook up the machines and then she just died." A few moments later, M'Rhinna opened her eyes, pulling air into her lungs in one great gasp. "Well?"

"It didn't work." M'Rhinna said sitting up.

"What do you mean?" Jennifer asked, taking the sensors off of her.

"The Wraith must have altered it slightly. Shutting down my systems didn't work."

"Altered what? What's going on?" Ronon asked and M'Rhinna looked at him briefly before looking away.

"The Wraith infected her with an enzyme that will eventually kill her, as a sort of security plan in case she ever escaped." Jennifer explained.

"They had cut into me once more before we went to my home planet, which must have been when they did it." M'Rhinna said, getting off the bed. "The enzyme was isolated on my station, I need to get to work to try to create an antidote." Her legs gave out from under her and she was suddenly in Ronon's arms, her hand wrapped around his bicep for support. "This version acts more quickly than the previous one." Ronon leaned her back against the bed and helped her get onto it, her chest heaving as she fought to breathe. "It's shutting down my muscles. Ronon?"

"Shh, it's okay, I'm here." He stroked her hair lightly, not giving Jennifer any thought as she ran into M'Rhinna's lab.

"Its not supposed to be happening this fast. Once it starts, it must be programmed to increase in speed." She said.

"M'Rhinna! I can't read this writing!" Jennifer called back.

"I need to get to my lab, Ronon you're going to have to carry me, I can't move my legs." He picked her up in his arms again and carried her into the laboratory. Her hand was cold where it lay against his neck and he could feel the muscles of her thighs twitching against his arm. Jennifer moved aside and M'Rhinna hit a few buttons on the controls, the writing translating itself first into Ancient and then into English. Keller began to scan the information quickly.

"Get her lying back down." She said and Ronon carried her back into the main infirmary, laying her down on a spare bed.

"You need to shut down again." Ronon said and she looked at him, very real fear in her eyes. "At least until Dr. Keller can make an antidote."

"But once I come out of it, it'll just start where it left off and by then it might be too late."

"Shut down, M'Rhinna."

"How will I know when to come out of it? Even if she injects me with an antidote, it won't get through my system because my heart won't be…" he silenced her putting his finger against her lips.

"Stop thinking and shut down your body." He said, his finger running along her bottom lip and she nodded, reaching up slowly to stroke his cheek. Her hand fell onto the bed and air left her body. Her eyes stared up at him unblinking and he brushed the lids down with a gentle pass of his hand.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Ronon?" Ronon looked up at John and Teyla standing in the doorway. They had put M'Rhinna into an observation room off of the main infirmary, Doctor Keller wanting her close to the lab where she was working on an antidote.

"How'd you know I was here?" He asked, looking back down at the dead woman on the bed. Her skin was tinged gray and he knew from when an uninformed orderly had checked on her, that her eyes were clouded over milk white. Medically speaking, she was dead, but she wasn't going to decompose. The nurses, orderlies, and other doctors were made aware of the situation so none of them would try to put her in a body bag or start an autopsy.

"We heard M'Rhinna died." Teyla said. "Something to do with a Wraith poison?"

"She shut down her body so Keller would have enough time to make an antidote." Ronon said.

"We just spoke with her, she's hopeful." Teyla said and Ronon nodded.

"The Wraith sure are evil, aren't they." John said, looking at M'Rhinna. "They kill off her people, torture her for ten thousand years and then make it so she has to essentially die to survive a poison they injected her with." He shook his head. "They pushed her to the dark side again and again, but she wouldn't give in. She'll survive this Ronon, you and I both know that."

Jennifer looked over the information that M'Rhinna's computer had formulated from the enzyme. The molecular structure was complex and precise, but she's seen worse while she's been here. Hooking up her tablet to the station she began to formulate her own version of it.

"So what exactly are we looking at here?" Sam asked, looking at the thick, noxious yellow fluid in the vial.

"This is the enzyme that the Wraith infected M'Rhinna with." Jennifer said. "It's pretty nasty, designed to shut down minor systems and then go for the major ones like a wrecking ball. From what I can tell, it's innocuous until it's introduced to someone with _Noctin_ DNA. Something in their genetic code triggers it and it starts its work."

"Maybe whatever makes the Wraith unable to feed on them?" Rodney said.

"Thought of that." Jennifer said. "I introduced on a slide some of my blood in with the Wraith enzyme and the two stayed separate, but when I introduced some of M'Rhinna blood that I had taken from her; it attacked it almost immediately, completely destroying all organic compounds in the blood. I timed its aggression and after a couple calculations, I estimated that if M'Rhinna hadn't shut her systems down, she would have had about a day before the enzyme destroyed her completely."

"Have you started on an antidote?" Sam asked.

"That's going to be tricky. It was hard enough just trying to create the enzyme exactly how it is in M'Rhinna's system, creating something that will shut it off will be difficult." Jennifer said.

"But you will be able to, right?" Sam asked.

"I'm hopeful, I have enough of the enzyme for testing, but it's going to take time."

"Doctor!" one of the lab techs called to her, her voice panicked. Jennifer, Sam, and Rodney ran from the lab to the tech in the observation room. Ronon and John were having a tough time keeping M'Rhinna on the gurney as her body was seizing violently, blood trickling from her mouth and nose.

"She woke up to ask how everything was going and then this started." John said and Jennifer joined him. M'Rhinna's eyes, wide and pain filled, darted to her face.

"M'Rhinna, you have to go back to sleep! There is nothing you can do to help us right now!" Jennifer said and jumped away as M'Rhinna's normally blue eyes flashed a demonic yellow. She looked at the others, but it seemed that they hadn't seen it. It had happened to fast, she wasn't even sure she saw it.

"M'Rhinna!" Ronon said and she looked at him. "Please, just go back to sleep." Her body seized once more before going limp again, her eyes clouding over. Ronon shut the lids and brushed her hair away from her face, tucking a lock behind her ear. Getting a rag, he began to wipe the blood away the best he could.

"Doc, you need to find a cure fast." John said to her and she looked at him seeing that his lip was split and swollen.

"She hit you?" she asked and John touched his lip, wincing.

"When the seizures started." John said and they looked at Ronon as he sat down heavily in a chair. "He's making a good show of hiding it, but this is starting to get to him." He said. "I don't think he's slept or ate since she came to Atlantis."

"Are you sure? It's been three days."

"Yeah, I know."

"Ronon?" Jennifer asked and he looked at her. "Why don't you go get something to eat, we can look after her."

"I'm fine." Ronon said shortly.

"Go get some food and go to sleep." John said and Ronon leveled a look at him.

"Is that an order Sheppard?" Ronon asked, standing.

"If you need it to be, then yes, it's an order." Ronon nodded once before turning and leaving the infirmary. "He's a great guy and all, but he can be a real pain in my ass sometimes."

"At least he knows to follow orders." Samantha pointed out.

"Whether he wants to or not."

Ronon waved his hand over the sensor for his barracks after getting something to eat and removed his radio, setting it on the side table by his bed. He kicked off his boots and headed towards the small bathroom to shower after taking out one of the crystals in the sensor on his side of the door, something John pointed out to him as a way to keep the door from being opened from the outside.

Ronon tossed the towel that he had been using the squeeze the water out of his dreads across the back of a chair and collapsed on the bed, the towel that he had secured around his waist bunching uncomfortably. Maneuvering, he pulled the towel away and tossed it across the room. Getting under the covers, the animals skins cool against his bare skin, he let out one heavy breath before letting himself fall asleep.

Although her body was dead, her mind was still very active. Wild, untamed instincts and urges swirled like a maelstrom around her mind. The urge to kill was there, beating at her mind and whittling away at her resolve. She resisted it whenever she fed from a human, but in her vulnerable state, it was fighting to take control of her, to utterly possess her.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Rodney walked into the infirmary looking for Jennifer, she didn't meet him for breakfast like she usually did and she hadn't been in her quarters. He found her hunched over a table next to a microscope asleep. Going over to her, he touched her back and she jolted awake, looking at him wide eyed before she recognized him.

"Oh, Rodney." She said, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "It's you."

"Were you here all night?"

"Is it morning already?" she asked and he nodded. "I just laid my head down for a minute, I must have fallen asleep."

"How's it coming?" he asked, gesturing to the microscope.

"Slowly. All my attempts at a cure are getting destroyed by the enzyme." She said and yawned.

"Why don't you go to your quarters and get some sleep?"

"I have to keep working on this."

"Jennifer, M'Rhinna essentially killed herself to give you as much time as you need. Go get some sleep." He said and she got off the stool, giving him a hug.

"You're a good boyfriend." She said.

"I have my moments." He said, holding her in his arms. Kissing the top of her head, he let go of her and she stepped back. "Come on, I'll walk you to your quarters."

"Okay." Jennifer said and they left they infirmary together.

Ronon sat at a table in the corner of the mess hall, turned in the seat so his back against the wall and his legs were up on the chair next to him. He observed the scientists and soldiers milling around the room through half opened eyes, his hands folded on his stomach. A stray curl from the growth of hair before the start of the dreadlocks fell over his eyes and he blew at it with a puff of air. It just fell back where it was and he smoothed it back with his hand. He really needed to do something with his hair; the flyaway curls and waves were starting to become bothersome. A memory of a dream passed over his minds eyes and he smiled to himself slightly.

"_I like your hair." M'Rhinna said as they sat together on the floor of her cell. She pulled at a curl gently, smiling as it sprung back into place. "It gives you character."_

"_It's a pain in my ass sometimes, especially when it's flying all over the place."_

"_You could kill someone with your dreadlocks; beat someone to death with them simply by turning your head too fast." She said and he laughed. It felt so good to laugh at something, to really laugh. Leaning over, she put her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her, holding her to his side. Looking down at her, he noticed something and his eyes drifted down to a thick scar starting at the hollow of her throat and disappearing between her breasts._

"_What happened?" he asked, touching where it began and she shifted uncomfortably. His hand fell away and he turned her head so she looked at him. "M'Rhinna? What happened?"_

"_I was punished."_

"_For what?"_

"_For attacking the Queen the way I did."_

"_When I first came to see you."_

"_I attacked her Ronon, you had nothing to do with it." M'Rhinna said, turning so she was on her knees. "I'll be fine, really."_

"_What did they do?"_

"_I don't want you to blame yourself."_

"_M'Rhinna, tell me what they did." Ronon said and she looked at him for a long moment before answering._

"Hey." Ronon snapped out of the memory as John sat down at the table across from him. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said.

"_Ronon, Colonel Sheppard, this is Doctor Keller."_

"Go ahead Doc." John said.

"_I created a viable antidote."_ She said. Ronon and John shared a look before getting up from the table.

"We're on our way." He said. "Sheppard out."

Ronon and John entered the infirmary just as Keller was drawing blue fluid into a syringe.

"That it?" John asked and she nodded. "How will it work? M'Rhinna's heart isn't beating."

"I took that into account. When I inject this into her, it will absorb into her tissues and multiply, pushing out the Wraith enzyme and restoring whatever it shut down. Her natural regenerative properties will take it from there. The drug will then leave her system in the same way the Wraith enzyme did." She said and went into the observation room with the syringe, John and Ronon following. They watched as Jennifer injected the solution into M'Rhinna's arm and stepped back.

Nothing seemed to happen at first, but then M'Rhinna's hand twitched. Thick noxious yellow fluid began to seep from her pores and under her nails, staining the bed sheet. When the fluid ran from yellow to blue, they knew it had worked the way it should have.

M'Rhinna came awake with a gasp, sitting up on the bed, her eye teeth lengthening as she looked at them.

"Doctor?" she asked and Jennifer left the observation room, coming back with three bags of blood. They watched in grim fascination as M'Rhinna drained the bags, handing them back to Keller.

"How are you feeling?" Keller asked and M'Rhinna shrugged.

"Tired." She said, smiling weakly. "But better than before. How long was I gone?"

"About a week."

"Sounds about right." She said, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and standing. She suddenly started to shake and sat down again. "I'm fine." She said to Ronon who moved to help her. "Just give me a minute."

"Can I ask you a few questions?" Keller asked and M'Rhinna nodded. "Just how quickly can you heal from things?"

"Depends on the injury and how strong I am. If it's minor, then almost instantly, but if it's something major, it may take a little while for all the signs to vanish."

"Scars and such." John said and she nodded, casting a quick glance at Ronon and rubbing at her chest.

"Does your chest hurt?" Jennifer asked.

"Some injuries take their time healing psychologically." She said. "I recently sustained an injury that was quite severe, all the physical signs are healed and gone, but…it was quite traumatic, it'll take me a while to forget it."

"What was it?" John asked.

"I'd rather not say." M'Rhinna said.

"Fair enough." He said.

"Before this all started, Colonel Carter said that I could go back to my home planet to get a few things." M'Rhinna started.

"Yeah, she mentioned it. Get your strength back first, and we'll go." John said and she nodded.

"Very well." She said and held her hand out to Ronon. He took it and helped her stand, wrapping his arm around her waist to support her. "It shouldn't take me more than a day to get recover completely."

"Take as much time as you need." John said and she smiled weakly.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

M'Rhinna stood under the warm spray of Ronon's shower, washing the stench of sickness and death from her hair and body, hoping to clear it from her mind as well.

"You okay in there? You've been in there a while." Ronon said from his room.

"Yeah, I'm fine." M'Rhinna said as she rinsed the soap from her hair. It had taken three washes to get every trace of the residue from the Wraith enzyme and Jennifer's cure from her skin and in the end she was pink and raw in some places where she scrubbed too hard with Ronon's loofah. The entire barrack smelled like him, a heady combination of rich, dark earth and the spicy scent of musk, making her want to wrap herself in it completely. It was an utterly masculine smell that warmed her heart and cradled her senses. All she wanted to do when she was around him was bury her face in his neck where his scent was the strongest and breathe deep. An image of her fangs sinking into the hard muscle of his neck came to her unbidden and she closed her eyes tight, smacking her palm against the wall of the shower as if to beat the image away. She could only guess that his blood would taste like his scent, but she would never know because she would never feed from him, she refused.

"M'Rhinna?" he was outside the door to the bathroom now, she could almost feel him there. Turning off the spray, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself, getting a second one for her hair which she then began to dry gently, running her fingers through seeing as he had nothing in the way of a brush or comb.

"I'm fine, Ronon." The patches were she was raw tingled as new skin grew and she watched in the mirror above the sink as they went from dark pink splotches to pale skin in a matter of moments. "I'm extremely grateful for everything you've done for me."

"What do you mean?"

"You've all been so accommodating, helping me when you knew nothing about me, curing me when you really didn't have you. Every one here is so accepting and kind." She said as she dried her hair.

"Yeah, that's kind of what they do. Help people who need help." Ronon said. "When I first met John and Teyla a few years ago, I was a Runner."

"For how long?" M'Rhinna asked, surprised.

"Seven years." He said. "They helped me when they didn't know me, even though I took them hostage and held Teyla at gun point the entire time."

"Did you really?" she asked, smiling.

"Yeah." He said, sounding a bit embarrassed. "They got the transmitter out of my back and offered me a place here. Atlantis has been my home ever since."

"What about your home planet?" M'Rhinna asked.

"Sateda was destroyed by the Wraith." He said shortly and she noticed the deep pain in his voice, but didn't draw attention to it.

"I'm very sorry to hear that." She said and silence stretched between them. "It's quite an accomplishment, being a Runner all that time and not getting caught; you must have really been a knife in their side."

"Yeah, I gave them some trouble alright." He said. "But I can't imagine spending over ten thousand years as their prisoner, must have been tough."

"I don't know why they didn't just kill me once the war was over." She said. "I've seen them kill countless numbers of my people, but for some reason that Queen wanted me alive."

"You have no idea why?"

"Not a clue." She said and left the bathroom still wrapped in the towel, running her fingers through her hair. Ronon was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at her with those expressive green eyes. She felt his eyes on her as she walked over to where she had put her clothes, grabbing them in one hand and going back into the bathroom to get dressed.

The gate shut down behind John, Ronon, Rodney, and M'Rhinna and she instantly led them off towards the capital city.

"How do you know that anything is even still here?" John said as they walked.

"In case there's a major attack, everything gets sealed." She said.

"We already scanned the buildings, or what's left of them, there was nothing."

"We didn't always live above the surface." She said and stopped in front of a building side.

"What is it?" Ronon asked and she began to rip away vines and vegetation, uncovering a pad of some kind. Removing the face plate, she took a piece of equipment out of her pocket along with a length of cord. Hooking it right into the mechanics, she pressed controls on the pad until the internal workings of the machinery lit up. Disconnecting the small machine, she replaced the face plate and pressed her hand against it. The pad flashed red once and there was a heavy sound below them that sounded like a lock being thrown back. She motioned them to step back and they did. Concentrating, the ground began to shake underneath them. Tinted sweat beaded on her brow as dirt and rocks began to flow back like water, revealing a metal door. Grasping the handle, she pulled it open.

It was dark and stank of stale air, but she pressed a control on the pad, soft blue lights illuminating stairs and hallways.

"That was kind of neat." John said and she smiled weakly at him, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand leaving a streak of pink across her skin. "Have you always been able to do that?"

"Ever since I was completely matured." She said as they started to walk down the stairs.

"It's kind of creepy down here." Rodney said and she perked an eyebrow at him.

"I lived down here for most of my life while I was in my Donga training." She said.

"What's with the lighting?"

"_Noctin_ eyes are photosensitive." She said simply.

"So the lights on Atlantis…"

"Like daggers."

"Ouch." John said grimacing. "You hide it well."

"I'm used to it." She said, leading them down the long corridor. Doors lined either side, plated on the front carrying spiky lettering.

"What do all these say?" Rodney asked.

"They're names." She said her voice sad. "My room is this way."

"How do you remember all this?" Ronon asked and she shrugged.

"I held onto as much of my life as possible while I was being held by the Wraith, the little things, you know? It helped distract me." She stopped at a door. "This is it." Grasping the handle, she twisted and it came off in her hand. She cast an annoyed look at it before stepping back and kicking the door solidly with the bottom of her boot. It fell in and the same soft blue light filled the room.

"This was your room?" Ronon asked as they stepped into it and she nodded, automatically going over to a closet. "Don't you want to look around?"

"I just want to get in and get out." She said shortly.

"Well I for one would like to look around, the tech this place has must be phenomenal." Rodney said.

"There are some underground labs I can take you to." M'Rhinna said as she started to load the bag she had brought with her with dark clothes and soft looking slipper like shoes.

"Who's this?" John asked, picking up a picture of a man that was on her desk. She stopped what she as doing and looked at him.

"Krell Voldan." She said. "My Mercer." There was a confused silence. "Second in Command." She explained. "He was…he was someone I cared about a great deal." She said and he gently put the picture back down on the desk.

"What's this?" Rodney asked, picking up a small device from a side table and starting to fiddle with it.

"Don't!" it was too late, the device activated. A beam shot out the front and a life size hologram of M'Rhinna stood before them dressed in a dark uniform. She looked younger, her eyes dancing as she smiled.

"_Put that down, Krell!" _she said and made a grab for something but the image jumped.

"_Come on, 'Rhin!"_ A man's deep voice said. _"I want something to record this joyous occasion."_

"_Krell! Give me that stupid recorder!"_

"_But 'Rhin…!"_

"_There are plenty recordings of the ceremony, isn't that enough?"_

"_You were made Donga today!"_

"_And you're still a lowly Mercer."_ She said teasing.

"_I'll have to do everything you say now."_

"_Oh baby."_ Hologram M'Rhinna rolled her eyes, still smiling. There was a sound of something being set down and a man entered the image. He was taller than her with short, choppy blonde hair and deep brown eyes dressed in a similar uniform only his shirt was sleeveless showing well defining arms and shoulders. He put his arms around her shoulders from behind and they smiled at the recorder.

"_Today M'Rhinna Trin was promoted to Donga. I knew when I married her that she was destined for greatness."_ He said and she made a rude noise.

"_Oh please, don't lie. You married me for my money."_ She said and he laughed a deep rumbling laugh as they looked at each other fondly. _"I love you."_

"_I love you more." _ He said and the real life M'Rhinna grabbed the recorder, shutting it off.

"M'Rhinna, I'm…" Rodney started but she cut him off.

"Let's just get out of here, I have everything I need." She said, wiping the pink tear tracks from her face.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

She was silent the entire way back to the gate and instantly went off on her own once they were back on Atlantis.

"What's wrong with M'Rhinna?" Teyla asked, looping her arm through John's.

"Personal stuff." John said and she nodded.

M'Rhinna stood on a balcony overlooking the vast ocean, her arms around herself as if she were cold. Tears glittered unshed in her eyes and she rubbed her arms, Krell's smiling face fixing itself over her minds eye. It's been so long, but the pain of losing him still stabbed at her heart, slowly killing her from the inside out. Warm, strong arms wrapped around her from behind and Ronon's scent filled her nose as she breathed deep. He didn't say a word, simply holding her as she started to cry softly.

"M'Rhinna!" she stopped on her way to the gym as Rondey ran up to her.

"Yes, Doctor McKay?" she asked politely.

"I've been looking all over for you."

"So I've heard." She said simply and he winced.

"You must not like me very much right now." He said. "Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for reminding you of the past like I did. I should have just not touched anything."

"Rodney…" she paused and let out a tired sigh. "It was a long time ago, yes I still mourn him, but like I said, it was a long time ago. Apology accepted."

"You and I are very different." He said suddenly.

"Yes, we are." M'Rhinna said, not sure where he was going with this.

"But with everything you've seen and everything you've learned…" he paused to collect his thoughts. "You knew the Ancients that built Atlantis."

"Yes, I did."

"I've never heard of your people until all this started, and the tech that I saw, even the basic equipment…I would very much like to work with you. You know more about Ancient technology than any of us and that is astounding. I would love to just pick your brain about every thing you know." He looked at her expectantly and she gave a small laugh.

"Your lab tomorrow after lunch?" she asked and he smiled.

"Perfect, see you then." He said beaming like a child.

"See you then."

Ronon and M'Rhinna circled each other slowly, bantos rods in their hands. M'Rhinna stepped lightly on her toes like a dancer, making her completely quiet, her eyes fixing in an unblinking stare at Ronon, her face an impassive mask. John sat on the window ledge with Teyla watching the two. Ronon suddenly vanished and then M'Rhinna, there was brief glimpses of them around the room like random images on a computer screen, the two never catching a whole figure. When they reappeared, Ronon was on his knees with a cut above his eye and his head pulled to the side by her hand in his dreadlocks, baring the heavy pulse in his neck. M'Rhinna's eye teeth were easily three inches long and her eyes were flashing dangerously as she gazed hungrily at the pulse jumping under the thin skin.

"M'Rhinna?" Ronon asked and she jumped away from him, her eyes closed and her body shaking. He got to his feet and tried to go to her, but stopped as she held up her hand.

"What's going on?" John asked.

"I don't exactly know." Ronon said. "M'Rhinna?" he asked again.

"Give me a second." She said, breathing heavily. Her teeth shrank back to their normal length and she sighed, opening her eyes.

"What was that all about?" John asked.

"It's been a while since I've…the instincts took over." She said.

"The instinct to rip Ronon's throat out?" John asked and she winced.

"I've pretty much been inactive for the past ten thousand years, so faced with a physical fight…"

"Battle instincts took over." Teyla said and M'Rhinna nodded. "How long can your teeth get?"

"When I'm actually in a fight in which I might die if I lose? I've known them to drop six inches." She said. "They're battle fangs, my people rarely use knives when faced in hand to hand combat, we just use our teeth because they are the most dangerous weapons we can ever own."

"Makes sense." John said and looked at Ronon, who was standing there very quiet, his eyes on M'Rhinna. "You okay, Ronon?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said and M'Rhinna walked so she was standing in front of him and reached up, cupping his cheek in her palm. Going up on her toes she kissed his other cheek and lowered back down, giving him an apologetic smile that reached her eyes, the back of her fingers running over his skin gently before tucking a stray curl behind his ear.

"I'm sorry if I freaked you out." She said and he grabbed her hand, his thumb moving over her knuckles.

"I hear you're going to be working with Rodney today." John said and she looked at him.

"News travels fast."

"He's been going on and on about it all day, I've never seen him so excited." He paused. "Well I did once…but then he ended up blowing up three-quarters of a universe." She perked an eyebrow at him. "Long story."

"One I'd like to hear." She said.

"Well that's really something he should explain to you. I didn't understand most of it." John said and she smiled.

"I'll be sure to do that." She said and paused, thinking. "It wouldn't have anything to do with Project Arcturus, would it?" John's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Yes, that's exactly what it is."

"I told them it was a bad idea, that the power levels would never be stable long enough before it went into an uncontrollable catastrophic overload. Did they listen to me? Of course not, after all, I'm not a Lantean."

"Yeah, well, Rodney thought he could fix it…" M'Rhinna sighed and shook her head. "And ended up destroying most of a solar system when the darn thing did exactly what you said and exploded."

"Does he display such ego often?" she asked, looking at Ronon who nodded.

"You get used to it." He said.

"Working with him should be a blast then."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Rodney looked up from his computer as the door slid open; framing M'Rhinna dressed in her dark uniform, a red emblem that looked like a spiky bug embroidered onto her chest.

"M'Rhinna! I was just about to contact you!" Rodney said as she entered the lab, looking around.

"Well here I am." She said, giving him a look.

"What?"

"I was told about your efforts with Project Arcturus." She said, "And its outcome."

"A slight hiccup in ability, I assure you I much less egotistical than I was."

"Somehow I doubt that." M'Rhinna said smiling pleasantly and Rodney chuckled nervously.

"Have you…"

"Yes, I've fed today." She said, going over to a laptop and looking at the keyboard.

"Do you know the written English language?" Rodney asked.

"Give me a second, I'll figure it out." She said and her hands hovered over the keyboard. He watched her for several minutes before she started to type rapidly, bringing up all of his current projects. "You're working on outfitting the small Lantean crafts with starjump engines?"

"We call them 'Puddle Jumpers'." Rodney said. "Wait…is starjump the same as hyperdrive?"

"Yes." She said, looking at the information with a furrow between her brows. "This almost looks like Lantean notations."

"I came up with this when I was suffering the effects of an 'Ascension Machine' that we found in one of the lower labs." He said and she nodded.

"Well you were close." She said and started typing.

"Can you finish it?" he asked hopefully.

"I would never be so arrogant as to say that, but I can certainly try." She said, sending the information to one of the large screens.

"We attempted it one time, but it burned out almost immediately." Rodney said as she began to isolate code.

"I'd be focused on the fact that you weren't vaporized immediately." She said, looking over code. "Which is was very likely, given these equations." She said. "You can help, if you want." She said and he went to a station.

"What will you have me do?"

"Go over the sections of code that I isolated and scan them for any inconsistencies." She said and he started doing just that. "I expected you to be more arrogant." She remarked after a moment of silence.

"Well, if I've learned anything it's that if I come across a person as old as or older than this city, they know what they're talking about." Rodney said and she chuckled. "So…your rank…Marseilles, the database didn't have much in the way of explaining what that means."

"I'm an expert in all things science and medicine." She said simply. "When you lived as long as I have, you have the time to learn and master pretty much everything."

"How old are you, exactly." Rodney asked.

"Colonel Carter asked me that very same question." She said.

"And what did you say?"

"That a woman doesn't like to discuss her age." She said.

"Not even a hint?"

"I was fully matured when my people and I were stranded on Earth." She said. "By how much I won't say."

"Fair enough." Rodney said. "In all honesty, you don't look a day over twenty-five."

"Thank you." She said smiling. "That's a comfort seeing as I've lived more lifetimes than should be possible." She typed some more. "Some days I can feel all of those years."

"I can imagine."

"No." she looked at him. "You can't." he looked up and met her deadened gaze.

"No, of course I can't."

John and Ronon walked into Rodney's lab later that day right in the middle of an argument.

"I'm telling you, the equation is wrong!" M'Rhinna yelled at Rodney.

"I went over it a hundred times!" Rodney yelled back.

"I highly doubt that because if you did…you would have seen that it's wrong."

"It's not wrong!"

"This equation would only be correct if your intention was to vaporize the jumper and all its passengers!"

"That's a _possible_ outcome, not the only one obviously because this worked once before!"

"Yes, Rodney, _once_, and then the engine burned out! I'm guessing you want to achieve starjump more than once?"

"It's called hyperdrive! Not starjump!"

"My people call it starjump, which makes a lot more sense than hyperdrive!"

"Weren't your people stranded on Earth because their 'starjump' engine burned out?"

"We didn't calculate for the amount of wear on the engine, when we got back to _Nocti…_"

"A thousand years later…"

"When we got back to _Nocti_ we took those factors into consideration and modified the engines so they would no longer burn out after long trips. We aren't idiots, Rodney!" she turned to a computer. "Look!"

"Hey!" Rodney exclaimed as she began to modify the offending calculation.

"There you go, it's fixed! You're welcome!" she said and crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Rodney as he read over the code.

"This is right." He said, surprised.

"See, I told you. It was wrong and now it's right." She said.

"Having fun, kids?" John asked and they glared at him. "Hyperdrive for the jumpers?"

"Yes." M'Rhinna said. "Now Rodney, I have a radio, contact me if you need me to pull your head out of your ass again."

"I resent that!" Rodney said.

"Resent it all you like, it's still true." She said and turned towards the door, walking to Ronon's side and looping her arm in his. "Ready?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah, I'm ready." He said, looking down at her fondly.

"What're you two up to?" John asked.

"Ronon and I have dinner plans tonight." M'Rhinna said, looking at him and smiling widely.

"I thought you couldn't eat solid food."

"I can eat it, but I gain no nutritional value from it."

"Just like the way it tastes, huh?" he asked and she nodded.

"That's exactly it." She said and the two left for the mess hall.

Ronon watched as she ate, smiling as she made sounds of contentment. She was currently digging into a rather large bit of steak that had been cooked rare, blood and other juices still leaking from the meat.

"I really do enjoy food." She said. "So anyway, I was thinking that we could go back to _Nocti_, I have some weapons there that I would like to have."

"Like?" Ronon asked, interested.

"Simple things like guns, rifles, knives, and some explosive devices." She said, spearing a piece of pasta with her fork and eating it.

"Why do you need those?" he asked, smiling.

"Why do you need your gun?" she asked.

"Touch." He said and she thought for a moment.

"I believe it's pronounced 'too-shay'." She said smiling.

"_Touch_." He emphasized, narrowing his eyes at her and she laughed.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The gate shut down behind them and they started off into the dense forests.

"Just what exactly are we looking for?" Evan asked.

"I'll know it when I see it." M'Rhinna said.

"Fair enough." He said and they walked in silence for a while before she stopped. "What is it?"

"We are being hunted." She said and they raised their weapons. Large darker shadows moved just out of sight, skirting around the outside of the group. "Vampyra." She hissed.

"What?" John asked.

"The creatures my people evolved from." She said and her fangs dropped several inches.

"You evolved from a creature called 'Vampyra'." Evan said and she nodded.

"That is where we got the term 'vampyre' from." She said, her voice distorted slightly by the fangs. Opening her mouth she gave out a sound that was unheard by them, but the creatures around them shrank back, disappearing into the darkness.

"What was that?" Ronon asked.

"That was me telling them to back off." She said, her fangs retracting. "It's not far now, lets get moving." They started walking again, but kept catching moving shadows on the edges of their vision, staying just out of direct sight.

"They're still following us." Evan said.

"They will, but they won't bother us." She said as they reached the dilapidated ruins of a building. Grasping the handle, she ripped the door off the rusted hinges and walked in, the space instantly illuminating with soft blue light.

"Major Lorne, stay out here and alert us if these things get any closer." John said.

"Yes, Colonel." He said.

"I wouldn't recommend that, they will attack if we split up." M'Rhinna said.

"Major Lorne, belay my last." John said.

"Yes, Colonel." He said and turned into the doorway.

"I would recommend that he take point behind us, they might attack if our backs are turned."

"You heard the woman." John said.

"Yes, Colonel." Evan said and raised the sight to his eye, walking backwards behinds them as they went further into the building. "M'Rhinna, they've entered the building." He said. "Why can't I make them out?"

"They can shield their forms with darkness; it makes it easier for them to hunt."

"Because this planet is completely dark ten out of the twelve months." John said.

"Precisely."

"I have a bad feeling about this." Ronon said, taking his blaster out of the holster and setting it to kill.

"We've come this far." M'Rhinna said.

"Yeah?" Evan said and they looked at him. "You didn't just call me, did you?" he asked M'Rhinna but she shook her head.

"It was them." She said, moving her head at the dark forms.

"They can talk?" John asked.

"No, they can read your mind and transmit thoughts." She said. "Whatever you hear, do not go off on your own, they will try to trick you, call to you by mimicking voices. Do not fall for it."

"_John!"_

"Teyla!" John said moving towards the sound of the voice but she grabbed his hand.

"It wasn't her, she's on Atlantis, safe and sound." She said and he blinked several times, shaking his head as if to clear it.

"_Ronon! Please, help me!"_

"Melena." Ronon said and M'Rhinna grabbed his arm. "Let go, I have to help her!"

"Ronon! It's not her!" M'Rhinna said, pushing with her mind through the hypnosis and he fell to his knees. She grabbed his gun and fired off into the darkness. High pitched screeching met their ears as her blasts hit the creatures. "They're leaving." She said and dropped to her knees in front of Ronon, cradling his face in her hands.

"It sounded just like her." He said, extreme pain in his voice.

"It wasn't her, Ronon." M'Rhinna said, forcing him to look at her. "It was just a trick."

"I say we scrub this and come back later." John said.

"They're won't bother us anymore." M'Rhinna said.

"You said that last time!"

"Trust me, John. I would never do anything to intentionally hurt any of you." She said and he thought for a moment before nodding.

"How much farther is it?"

"Not very." She said and stood when Ronon did, sliding his gun back into the holster.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

M'Rhinna kicked open a sealed door to a room and the same blue light filled the area. Evan let out a low whistle of appreciation, looking at the walls covered with weapons of every kind, crates of ammunition pushed against the edges of the room. She looked over and smiled as Ronon began to pocket and palm slim knives, hiding them in every conceivable place without constricting movement. She grabbed a holster belt and strapped it on around her waist, taking two handguns off the wall and putting them in the holsters.

"You said everything gets sealed in case of an attack?" John said and she nodded, opening a crate of ammunition. "So all of these are in the same condition they were ten thousand years ago."

"That's right." She said putting clips filled with softly glowing red bullets into the pockets of the belt. She strapped a holster of some kind around her forearm and started to slide knives into it, sliding knives into the holster belt as well.

"Can we have some of these?" Evan said.

"Take as many as you want, this isn't the only armory on the planet." She said, shrugging into a holster and sliding a long dark sword into it, the hilt and handle visible over her shoulder.

"Well okay then." He said and let go of the P-90, leaving it to hang down his front and grabbed what looked like a kind of shotgun off the wall.

"The ammunition is in the crate at your feet and the holster is right next to you." She said and he opened the crate, taking clear boxes of glowing red shells and tucking them into his vest.

"How many armories do you have?" John asked.

"There are twelve more in this building, thirteen in every major building and at least one in every other structure." She said, thinking about it.

"We'll come back for the rest in this building and get the others in an as needed basis." He said and she nodded.

"We'll have to come back with a couple…Puddle Jumpers, I believe you call them?" John nodded. "Some of these crates are heavy."

"Why does everything glow red?" Evan asked.

"It's stored energy. Whereas your bullets are a one time deal, you can get at least a dozen consecutive shots out of one of ours. When the energy is spent, the gun ejects the cartridge." She said and put clips into each of her guns, putting one in the chambers and flicking the safeties on, sliding them back into the holsters.

"Are the rest of the armories stocked like this?" John asked.

"This is one of the smaller ones in this building; the central armory has explosive devices of all shapes and sizes."

"The Daedelus will be back soon, they can get those. How much damage can your bombs do?"

"One sonic grenade can take out a cruiser and one pulse grenade can take out a Hive ship if placed right."

"How big is a sonic grenade?" she made a circle with her fingers about the size of a baseball. "Pulse grenade?" she widened her hands to the approximate size of a bowling ball. "Very nice, we'll definitely be picking up those."

"The pulse grenades are remote controlled, but designed in a way that if the casing is broken, say by a Wraith trying to disable it, the energy will be released all at once versus in waves."

"Destroying everything with a big boom."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"And the sonic grenades?"

"Same deal, only the energy in a sonic grenade goes outwards all at once when detonated, if the casing is broken and the energy releases, it pulls everything inwards."

"It causes things to implode instead of explode." Evan said and she nodded. "Effective, either way." He said.

"Let's get out of here." M'Rhinna said, "Do you need me to get back to this room?"

"No." John said. "I remember the way."

"Good, I want to spend the least amount of time in these compounds as possible." She said.

The trip back to the gate was uneventful with the creatures staying just out of eyesight the entire way back but not pursuing them as aggressively as before. The gate activated and John sent through his IDC. They walked through and Teyla met them on the other side.

"Did you get everything you wanted?" she asked M'Rhinna.

"Just about. Your ship the Daedelus will get the rest." M'Rhinna said and Teyla nodded.

"Their weapons tech is incredible. You should see the gun that Major Lorne picked up." John said and Evan held up the shotgun in the holster.

"I can't wait to try this baby out." He said and M'Rhinna sent him a quick smile.

"Target practice later?" she asked.

"We better." Evan said smiling back.

"Can I try out your gun, M'Rhinna?" Ronon asked and she looked at him.

"Only if I can try yours." She said.

"Deal." He said and suddenly her brow furrowed, her eyes darting to Teyla's stomach. A smile broke her face and a small laugh left her lips.

"What?" Teyla asked, putting her hands on her stomach.

"Your son just asked if he could try shooting my gun. I told him not until he's older." She said and Ronon snorted. "He's going to be a handful."

"I'm starting to get that feeling." John said. M'Rhinna looked at Ronon, seeing the look he was giving her.

"Don't look at me like that! I can't have kids with a human!" she said and they looked at the bigger man.

"I wasn't thinking that!" he said.

"You were thinking about what I would look like pregnant. I'm telling you right now, I can't have children with a human. We aren't compatible." The men in the room perked their eyebrows. "_Genetically_ compatible."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

_M'Rhinna and Ronon ran through their version of the city, a version in which they were the only ones. He was chasing her through the winding hallways and up and down the sweeping staircases, her laughter floating back to him as she disappeared into the shadows of a darkened hallway. It took a moment but his night vision kicked in and he scanned the darkness, looking for her._

"_M'Rhinna…" he drawled and concentrated, turning on the lights in the hall._

"_Cheater!" she exclaimed as she ran around a corner. He gave chase again, a smile pulling at his lips. Stopping at a crossway he looked down the hallway at his left and then down the hallway to his right, not knowing which one she took. A sound caught his attention and he looked over, catching the sight of silver orbs right before she attacked._

_Ronon grabbed her around the waist, using her own momentum to push her against the wall, pinning her. She jerked against him, trying to break free, but he growled and tightened his hold on her. She relaxed against him, giving up on her efforts for freedom and he loosened his grip on her waist._

"_Don't you think there's something wrong with the fact that this is the only way we can be alone together?" she asked and he shrugged._

"_I don't know." He said, "I kinda like it." He closed the distance between them, her head tilting to the side as he pressed his mouth into the side of her neck. "It's private." He growled, his beard tickling her skin._

"_I mean," she started. "You're either with John, or I'm with Jennifer, Teyla, or now Rodney. We never have the opportunity to have it just be us."_

"_And the fact that you have other quarters doesn't help any." Ronon said, laying soft kisses on her neck._

"_Do you want me to move into your quarters?" M'Rhinna asked and he stopped, looking at her. He thought about it for a while before he nodded._

"_Yeah, I kinda do." He said and she smiled. "Now, less talking more action." He said and she laughed._

John waved his hand over the sensor and the door to M'Rhinna's room opened. He watched her for a moment as she carefully folded her clothes, putting them into a dark bag, her weapons already in their cases. The _Noctin_ flag on her wall detached itself and folded into a neat square, flying over and landing inside an open bag.

"Going somewhere?" John asked.

"I'm moving into Ronon's quarters." She said, not looking at him.

"Oh really?" he asked grinning and she gave a short laugh, smiling.

"Really."

"Well, I just stopped by to see if you wanted to go the shooting range, but do you need help moving?" her asked.

"I'd welcome it." She said.

"Okay, put me to work."

"If you could grab the gun case while I get my clothes and other weapons, I'll be all set." She said and he went over to the large black case, grabbing the handles on either side and lifting, giving out a sound of mock strain. She slung her bags over her shoulders and led the way out of the now empty room.

Major Lorne met them halfway there and offered to help as well, taking the bag with her clothes and putting it over his shoulders.

"It's nice to know I have friends." She said.

"You have friends." Evan said.

"I know, but it just seems that everyone else is on edge around me. I know I'm not imagining things because I've caught some very interesting errant thoughts from people who have weak mental barriers." She said.

"Such as?" John asked.

"Dr. Kavanagh thinks I'm no different from the Wraith." She said and the two men were silent.

"Well, I'll talk to him about that." John said finally.

"If you do then he'll think I was reading his mind intentionally because he never said it aloud. I've no doubt that he'll voice his feeling soon, though."

"I'll tell McKay to keep an eye on him." John said. "You don't deserve being thought of like that, you've been nothing but an asset since you've been here."

"A couple people are also expecting me to go crazy and start killing people."

"Who?" Evan asked but she shrugged.

"It's a popular thought. Many are on guard around me, and some avoid me altogether." She said. "The only people who truly relaxed around me are you two, Teyla, Rodney, Colonel Carter, Jennifer and of course Ronon." They reached Ronon's quarters and she waved her hand over the sensor. The room was devoid of the man and the three entered, setting down their burdens. "Thank you, boys." She said, giving them both a kiss on the cheek.

"Careful M'Rhinna, I'm a kept man." John said jokingly and she laughed.

"Something tells me Teyla isn't the jealous type, so I think you'll be fine." She said.

"Shooting range later?" John asked.

"I actually have a previous engagement. How about tomorrow?" she said.

"Tomorrow's good." He said.

"Thank you again for your help, you two." She said and they both smiled at her.

"No problem, M'Rhinna." Evan said and they left.

M'Rhinna walked out of the bathroom, gently towel drying her hair and stopped short of the sight of Ronon laying face down on the bed, his shirt thrown over the back of a chair. Tightening the knot on her robe more securely, she went over to the bed and knelt on the edge, laying her hands on his back and starting to knead the muscles gently. He started to make sounds of contentment into the pillows and she smiled. Her hands slid away and he looked at her.

"Who said you could stop?" he asked and she smiled wider at him. His face went back into the pillows and she started to massage his back again, working out the knots between his shoulders. She brushed his heavy mane of hair away from his neck and massaged the muscles on either side of his brain stem with her thumbs, working them into relaxation.

"You're so tense." She said, moving her hands to the muscles where the shoulders met the neck. "Do you ever relax?"

"I never have time to." He said, his voice slightly muffled, "I've also never gotten a massage before."

"Really?" she asked. "They're quite therapeutic." His shoulder seized as she hit a particularly large knot. "Sorry." Her fingers eased and she slowly began to relax the muscle. His skin was soft and smooth under her hands and she enjoyed the fact that he was so responsive to her touch, moving into her hands, guiding her to where he wanted the most attention. She started to work on his neck again and she was suddenly fixated on the heavy pulse under his skin, jumping against her fingertips. She could feel the blood rushing through the artery with every beat of his heart and there was a tugging in her mouth as her eye teeth extended.

Ronon came up on his elbows as she leapt off the bed, grabbing her clothes off a chair and going into the bathroom to get dressed.

"M'Rhinna?" he asked.

"I'm fine!" she said, her voice slightly distorted. She came out of the bathroom, buttoning the uniform shirt and sliding her shoes on and securing them. He got off the bed and she watched him warily as he advanced on her.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"There's nothing you can help me with, this is something I have to deal with."

"Deal with what?" he asked.

"It's…personal, and terrifying, but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before. I'll be fine, and once I deal with this, you'll be fine."

"I don't understand." Ronon said.

"And I hope you never do." She said and moved to leave the room, but he grabbed her around the waist, holding her in place.

"M'Rhinna."

"Ronon please, I need a little space right now, just for a little while." She said but he didn't let go of her. His hands came up to cradle her face and he pulled at her gently, stooping at the shoulders to press his lips to hers. "You're not making this any easier." She said when he pulled away and he smiled mischievously.

"I aim to misbehave."

"Why do I get the feeling you're quoting?"

"It's a movie John had me watch about space cowboys." He said and kissed her again. His hand fisted in her hair as he parted her lips with his own, deepening the kiss. His tongue slid past her teeth and there was a sharp pain, the taste of blood filling his mouth. He jerked away and put his finger to the tip of his tongue, coming away with blood.

"I'm sorry." M'Rhinna said, breathing heavily, her eyes fixed on the drop of ruby red on the tip of his finger.

"It's not your fault; I just have to be careful with those fangs of yours." She started to back away from him, low groaning sounds coming from her throat. "M'Rhinna, it's okay, really. I've already stopped bleeding." He tried to go to her but she made a sound of protest, shaking her head, not looking at him.

"I can't be here right now. I have to be somewhere else." She said and ran from the room, stopping only to swipe her hand across the sensor to open the door before vanishing down the hall. Ronon hastily pulled on his shirt and went after her but she was nowhere to be found.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"So neither of you has ever heard of the _Noctins_?" John asked Ronon and Teyla as they sat down at the table in the mess hall.

"I heard stories when I was a child of a race that lived in darkness, but I never knew their name." Teyla said.

"The only things we were concerned about from the past were the Wraith and how to kill them." Ronon said shrugging. "There were some references in the databases to a race that worked with the Ancestors, but it didn't go into detail."

"Speaking of _Noctins_," John started. "How're things going with you and M'Rhinna?" he asked.

"Yes, John told me that she moved into your quarters." Teyla said and he shrugged, not looking at either of them.

"I haven't seen her since yesterday." He said truthfully.

"What do you mean?" Teyla asked. "She did not sleep in your quarters with you?"

"I don't know where she slept last night, but it wasn't with me." Ronon said. "I cut my tongue on her teeth last night, and that really seemed to bother her. She ran from my room and I haven't seen her since."

"Haven't seen who since?" Jennifer asked, sitting at the remaining seat.

"M'Rhinna." Ronon said.

"She's in her lab, was there when I got there this morning. Doesn't look like she slept at all last night." Jennifer said, popping a grape into her mouth.

"She's there right now?" Ronon asked.

"She was there when I told her I'd be in the mess hall if she needed anything." She said and Ronon got up from the table, taking his tray with him.

Going into the infirmary, he stopped inside the doorway to her lab, watching her work at the station. Her shoulders were slumped with fatigue and several drained blood bags were stacked on the consul next to her.

"Hey." Ronon said.

"Hello." She said back, her tone of voice unfeeling and uncaring.

"Have you been here all night?" he asked.

"This is important work. It needs to be finished if the Wraith are to be defeated." She said simply, sounding slightly annoyed. Going up behind her, he put his hands on her shoulders and she stiffened momentarily, but relaxed against his chest, a sigh leaving her lungs.

"Do it later. You're tired, I can feel it." He turned her so she had to look up at him.

"Ronon, I…" he silenced her by kissing her gently. Pulling away he scooped her up in his arms and carried her from the infirmary, feeling her relax against his chest, one of her arms around his neck. She was asleep before he reached their quarters.

M'Rhinna woke very warm, surrounded by animal skins and Ronon's scent. Shifting slightly, she scowled and looked under the covers, laughing. He had taken advantage of the situation and removed her of all her clothes. Looking around, she didn't see them and went back to scowling.

"_Ronon, where are you?"_

"_I'm at the gym with John, why?"_

"_Where the bloody damnation did you put all my clothes?"_ she asked sitting up and his laugh travelled to her over their mental pathway.

"_Stay there, I won't be long."_

"_At least tell me where my underwear is!"_

"_Just stay put."_

"_No, Ronon, I'm going to run naked through the hallways. Get here soon."_ She closed down their pathway and sat back against the pillows, her arms crossed over the blankets. She didn't have to wait long, the door opening and framing Ronon. She sat up, holding the blanket to her chest, her long dark hair falling around her back and shoulders like a curtain and he gave her a small smile, walking in the room, the door closing behind him.

"I think I'll keep you like this." He said and she frowned at him.

"You already have me, now give me my clothes." M'Rhinna said but he didn't say a word, sitting down in a chair across from the bed, looking at her with a small pleased grin on his face. "Ronon, clothes!"

"Okay, okay!" he said sighing dramatically and getting up from the chair. Going into the bathroom, he grabbed her bag from where he had hidden it and tossed it onto the bed.

"Thank you." She said and pulled clothes from it, wiggling under the blankets as she got dressed. "No peeking!"

"Seen it." He drawled and unseen by him, her cheeks flamed red. She omitted the uniform shirt, leaving the black corset shirt uncovered as she crawled out from under the blankets, folding the uniform shirt and placing it back into the bag carefully. "How're you feeling?"

"Better." She said truthfully.

"You want to tell me what exactly happened last night?" he asked.

"Not really."

"Why not?"

"Because I…can't Ronon, I just can't. Please, this is a side of me that I have to deal alone."

"You don't have to, you choose to."

"You don't understand!"

"Then help me understand!" he said.

"You could never understand, Ronon!"

"Because I'm human? Is that it?" Ronon asked. "I'm human and you're not. That's what it narrows down to, doesn't it."

"Ronon…"she sighed, rubbing an eyebrow as if she had a headache. "It's not that you're human. I don't care that you're human, I really don't."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't want to hurt you!"

"You won't!"

"You don't know that!" she said and sighed again, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Ronon, among my people, when there is a mated pair it is not uncommon for there to be blood exchanges during intercourse. _Noctins_ can take more damage than a human can, it's a proven fact. It has been a very long time since I have been with a man, human or otherwise so every time we start something, all of those instincts and urges come to the surface. It's not something I'm proud of, the only thing I think about when I'm around you is how good you smell and how good your blood tasted when I got that little bit when you cut your tongue on my teeth." She said. "And quite frankly, that scares me more than anything because I don't want to feed off of you and you hate the Wraith—"

"You're not a Wraith." He interjected.

"No, but humans have been my only source of sustenance for the past ten millennia. Our two species are alike in that way. We feed off of humans to survive, and like I said, you hate the Wraith, so I don't think you'd like the idea of me feeding off of you."

"I've honestly never thought about it. I guess I've been pretending that you're human when I know you're not, I haven't quite wrapped my head around that yet."

"Ronon, I would never do anything to hurt you, you know that."

"Yeah I know." There was a pause. "When I was looking through your eyes whenever you fed on a human back before you got here, it seemed that it was painful for the person you were feeding off of."

"I was starving and I was desperate. I was thinking nothing of the humans' needs or feelings, I needed food and they were a source, nothing more. I thought of them more like one of the bags of blood in the infirmary than a person."

"What are you saying?"

"I can make the act of feeding pleasurable, all of my kind can. Some choose not to, of course, because they enjoy the taste of fear and adrenaline in their donors' blood, but I prefer that my donor looks back on the experience fondly. It leads to fewer complications that way and more likely than not another donation somewhere down the road."

"Is that how you see it? A donation?" Ronon asked.

"I prefer they give it willingly, so in essence it is a donation. I don't take from one what I can get freely from another." She explained and he nodded.

"I want to know what its like."

"No you don't and I'm not going to do it." She said. "I already promised myself that I would never feed from you because you are not food and you never will be food."

"Don't think of me as food. You said that _Noctin_ couples feed off each other as a show of intimacy, think of it like that."

"You're not my kind, Ronon. You won't heal from this immediately." She said.

"M'Rhinna, you said that you don't care that I'm human. I want you to think of me as an equal."

"I already do."

"I care about you a lot and I want to be with you but it seems like my humanity might be a…" he paused. "A wall between us."

"Ronon…"

"I want you to be happy, and if that means…if that means I have to do something that makes me uncomfortable, then I will." He said and she was silent for a long moment.

"I would never ask you to do something that would make you uncomfortable. You know that." She said her words slow and careful, making sure he got her meaning. "If that means I have to make a compromise with myself about certain aspects of our relationship, then I will. After all, I'm told that relationships are all about compromise. This is one thing I will not do. Please don't ask me or try to convince me otherwise." Silence stretched between them for several minutes.

"You said that biting was normal with _Noctin_ couples? Is there any particular place that has special meaning?" Ronon asked.

"Yes, biting on the neck shows a level of trust. We trust our partner not to kill us." M'Rhinna said and in several long strides he crossed the room, crouching down in front of her and lacing a hand behind her head, his fingers buried in her hair tilting her head to the side. She was unable to stop him before he bit down on the soft muscle of her neck, sinking his teeth into the tissue past the point of bruising but not hard enough to break the skin.

Her arms wrapped around him as he pushed her back onto the bed, her hands fisting in the material of his shirt. Whimpers escaped her lips as he bit down harder, breaking the skin. The rich taste of her blood filled his mouth and on reflex he swallowed, his throat convulsing. He's tasted blood before, having tasted his own more times than he cares to admit, but this…this was different. It tasted like the richest alcohol of Sateda but also of the sweetest drinks on Atlantis. It flowed into his veins like liquid fire, seeming to bypass his stomach altogether.

M'Rhinna closed her eyes at the feeling of his teeth at her neck. They weren't the fangs of a _Noctin_ male in his prime, but they seemed to do the trick. Her hands pulled at his shirt, raising it enough so she could press her palms into the skin of his back, her nails digging in as his teeth dug into her neck harder. She felt the moment he broke through the skin and some part of her told her to make him stop so he wouldn't ingest any of her blood, but that was quickly overridden by the wave of pure feeling that swept through her body. Her fangs lengthened and she vaguely remembered lathing the skin of his neck with her tongue right before she sank her fangs in deep, her mind pushing at his so he felt only pleasure and no pain. She pulled deeply at his throat, swallowing a couple mouthfuls of his rich blood before pulling away, her tongue passing over the puncture marks to make them stop bleeding.

Ronon pulled away from her neck, watching the bite mark heal itself. It didn't heal fully, leaving a perfect ring of teeth marks glaring red against her pale skin. His throat throbbed, sending waves of sensation through his body with every beat, her blood burning its way through his system. Sounds intensified and he looked at her, seeing her heated gaze as their eyes met.

"Ronon…" she whimpered and he kissed her deeply, letting her taste her blood in his mouth and tasting his in her mouth. He stopped only long enough so she could remove his shirt before his lips once again sealed over hers.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Jennifer looked up as Ronon and M'Rhinna walked into the infirmary. Well, M'Rhinna walked in dragging Ronon behind her, her hand wrapped around his forearm.

"M'Rhinna, I feel fine!" Ronon protested.

"You ingested some of my blood and I don't know what effect that will have on you."

"Don't you?" he asked.

"Not fully." She admitted with a sigh and they stopped in front of her. "Jennifer, I would like you to do a full tissue scan of Ronon. I would do it myself, but this is your infirmary not mine." Jennifer grabbed her tablet and got up from the desk.

"You said he ingested some of your blood?" she asked as they went to the scanner. "I heard your conversation on the way in. May I ask how that happened?"

"Well…" M'Rhinna started.

"Wait a second, scratch that, I don't want to know." Jennifer said. "Ronon, do you know how much you took in?"

"I wasn't exactly measuring, doc." Ronon said impatiently.

"Rough estimate?"

"Only one, maybe half, a mouthful." He said and reluctantly lay down on the scanner, tucking his long hair behind his back as he lay down.

"I see." Jennifer said, pressing controls on the pad of the scanner. It came to life, lighting up and moving to the head of the platform. "Ronon, may I take a sample of your blood?"

"Take whatever you need to convince M'Rhinna I'm fine." Ronon said.

"I'm guessing you'll want a sample of mine for comparison?" M'Rhinna asked.

"If it's not too much to ask."

"Take what you need, doctor. I give it freely." M'Rhinna said.

"Long story short," Jennifer said to John, Sam, Teyla, and Rodney later that day. "He's not fine."

"Define that for us, please." Teyla requested.

"The small amount of _Noctin_ blood that Ronon swallowed already mutated his cells, and it's altered his genetic base code so genetically speaking, he's now part _Noctin_ the same way Colonel Sheppard is part Ancient and Teyla is part Wraith." Jennifer said. "He's already showing signs of advanced physical abilities."

"Well he already had that." John said.

"He's admitted that his hearing and sight is better. He heard Rodney coming ten minutes before he arrived." Jennifer said.

"How did he know it was me?" Rodney asked, surprised.

"He said he could smell you. So his olfactory sense has also been enhanced tremendously." Jennifer said.

"You said 'mutated', past tense." Sam said. "Is the mutation still occurring?" Jennifer shook her head.

"It's stopped. It was stopped by the time M'Rhinna got him here; apparently he didn't take in enough of her blood for there to be a full mutation."

"So if he takes in enough of her blood, he'll…" John started.

"Transform into a _Noctin_? I believe so, yes." Jennifer said.

"Do they know yet?" Sam asked and Jennifer shook her head again.

"I wanted you all to know first." She said.

"Thanks for telling us first." Sam said. "Now let's break the news to them."

Ronon and M'Rhinna were quiet after Jennifer told them the news. One of M'Rhinna's hands came up and started to rub at the teeth marks on her neck and Ronon grabbed her hand, holding it between his own.

"M'Rhinna, I'd like to ask you what might be a delicate question." Samantha started and she looked at her.

"Ask away." M'Rhinna said.

"Is it possible to turn a human into what you are?"

"No, it isn't possible, my people are born the way we are, you can not be made into a _Noctin_, not fully." M'Rhinna said.

"So what happens if Ronon takes more of your blood somewhere down the line?" John asked.

"It will enhance his senses and regenerative capabilities, but after its' done all it can do it will turn toxic and poison him should he ingest more." M'Rhinna said and he nodded.

"So Ronon," John said. "If you're going to bite her, don't bite down as hard anymore." he said and Ronon chuckled.

"Is there any way to reverse the process?" Teyla asked. "Maybe introduce…what are they called…stem cells to try to repair what has been mutated?"

"Brilliant idea, Teyla." M'Rhinna said. "But it would be ineffective. As far as his body is concerned, this is how he was born, even though the mutation is still new." She looked at Ronon, taking her hand from his to run it over the side of his hair affectionately. "The mutation is permanent and with training, he will be able to block out the unnecessary sounds and smells."

"It will give him an edge on missions." John said and she allowed herself a small smile.

"The training will take time; I went through the same training when I reached my first Quickening." She said.

"Quickening?" Teyla asked.

"I believe humans call it 'puberty'?" she asked and Jennifer nodded. "_Noctin_ children are very much like human children, we eat food to gain nutrients for the first fifteen years of our lives and our eye teeth are much like yours. Once we reach our Quickening, our bodies mature like humans but food no longer sustains us, our senses heighten and we gain most of the abilities of the adults, gaining the rest at our second Quickening, which does not happen for some time after our first."

"How long?" Jennifer asked.

"I have yet to experience my second Quickening, but I am confident I will soon."

"How soon?" Sam asked.

"Within the next five hundred years, I am sure of it." She said.

"Right, soon." John said and she gave a small laugh.

"When you've lived as long as I have, five hundred years is nothing. Human lifetimes are over in the blink of an eye." M'Rhinna said, still looking at Ronon fondly. Her gaze suddenly turned sad and she let out a sigh that was full of pain and sorrow. He looked at her, a furrow between his brows.

"What's wrong?" Ronon asked.

"Human lifetimes are so short."

"We'll talk about this later." He said and she nodded.

"Changing the subject." John said and she shot him an appreciative smile. "How come Ronon isn't being overloaded right now?"

"The mutation to his senses wasn't complete and I am shielding him somewhat. With training, he will be able to shield himself." She said looking at him and then back at Ronon. "We should begin immediately."


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

"The first thought I had when you contacted me and told me that a person as old as or older than the Ancients was contacting Ronon and requesting our help was 'They could make a good ally, might as well lend a hand'. I come to find that we are not in contact with this person, but that they are staying on Atlantis!" Colonel Caldwell said, his voice steadily rising in tone until he was yelling.

"This person has a name." John said.

"I'm aware of that Colonel." Caldwell said. "By her own admission, she feeds off of humans to survive. How does that make her any different from the Wraith?"

"Because," Ronon said, leaning forward so his palms were flat against the table. "Given a choice between a blood bag and a person, she'll choose the bag every time."

"Gee, Ronon, those look an _awful_ lot like _bite marks_ on your neck." Caldwell said and Ronon let out a low growl.

"What she and I do in private is our business." He said. "I'm not food, she doesn't treat me like food, and she definitely doesn't see me as food."

"Yes? What about every other person on this base?" he asked and looked back at Sam. "You are knowingly placing everyone on this base in danger! How do you know she won't start attacking people?"

"Steven, she's been here for three weeks now, if she was going to go on a rampage and start killing people, she would have by now."

"And you're so sure of that."

"Yes," they looked over, seeing M'Rhinna walk into the briefing room. "She is."

"This is a private conference Ms. Trin," Caldwell said. "You were not invited." She turned her attention to him, perking eyebrow at him.

"But it concerns me, does it not?"

"It concerns your standing on this base."

"Sam," she looked at the other woman. "Ask me to leave, and I will go."

"No one is asking you to leave, M'Rhinna."

"Not yet, anyway." Colonel Caldwell said and M'Rhinna looked at him. "I will be reporting this back to the I.O.A. and General Landry."

"Go right ahead, Colonel, I'm standing by my decision to let M'Rhinna stay here." Sam said.

"And if you're ordered to tell her to leave?" Caldwell asked.

"I'll take the order into consideration. I've already made my report about her Stephen and I've already forwarded it to the SGC. They have been made aware of her and her…special needs. They have also been made aware that she is continuing her research in what makes her kind immune to the Wraith and if the reason can be made into a drug or gene therapy." Sam said. "Something tells me they'll decide in my favor." She said.

"I hope you know what you're doing Sam." Caldwell said.

"I do." Sam said and he walked out of the conference room.

"He's…pleasant." M'Rhinna said.

"He's career military." John said.

"You and Sam are career military." She said.

"Yeah, but he's _career military._" John said.

"Ah, I see." She said. "If you'll excuse me." She said and turned, walking out of the room.

Caldwell raised his hand to touch his radio but stopped when he heard his name.

"Colonel Caldwell!" he turned and saw M'Rhinna walking swiftly towards him. "If I may have a word with you in private."

"Here is fine." He said.

"Very well." M'Rhinna said and took in a deep breath before speaking. "I want to know what conflict you have with me, and be honest, I can tell if a person is lying."

"I think you're dangerous and I think that you being here is no better than having a Wraith on the base."

"If I recall from mission reports, a Wraith was indeed on this base for an extended amount of time helping you in the defeat of those you called the Replicators." She said.

"Yes, that's true, but it was secured with bonds the entire time it was out of its cell. You are allowed to walk around freely, and I just don't think that's right."

"Colonel, I have heard this all too often. My species has been compared to the Wraith more times than you will ever know and as long as there's even a handful of us still alive in this galaxy, we always will be. I was held captive by a Wraith Queen for over ten thousand years, and not a day went by when she informed me of our similarities. Understand this, I am not Wraith, I will never be Wraith. I would rather my own life end than to hurt anyone on this base and that includes you, no matter how much you may dislike me. I am highly grateful for everything Samantha has done for me and asked for nothing in return except an alliance." She said. "I do not know how many of my kind, if any, are out there. Colonel, for all I know, I am the last of the _Noctins._ But if I am the last, I will make the most of the eternity I have left and try to find a way to help the humans of this galaxy and put an end to the Wraith threat. Do we have an understanding?" he nodded. "I'm not the enemy, Colonel Caldwell, and trust me when I say you really don't want me to be. Above all else, I am military. I was military long before I was science and I didn't get where I am by lying down and giving in to pressure and threats."

"Were you in control of your own army?" he asked.

"I was in control of my own fleet of ships in the war against the Wraith. I only hope one of them survived, but I am not holding my breath waiting to find one of my ships. A last act in case we were boarded by the Wraith was to destroy the ship so the Wraith wouldn't get their hands on our technology, because that would be very bad indeed."

"Because you have hyperdrive engines." Caldwell said.

"I don't understand that term you all use, 'starjump' makes much more sense than 'hyperdrive'. To answer your question, yes, _Noctin_ ships carry starjump capabilities. My people saw the danger in the Wraith being able to travel and expand into other galaxies long before the Lanteans did."

"Did you try to tell the Ancients about this?" Caldwell asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yes, we did. We even warned them of the dangers before the Wraith became a fully functioning species, but the Lanteans weren't what you would call 'humble'. They were extremely overconfident and by the time they saw we were right, it was too late." M'Rhinna said.

"Why didn't you take action against the Wraith before the war?"

"We wanted to, but our High Council didn't want to get involved. They were still angry over the Lanteans inability to listen to advice, so they decided to do nothing. A decision that, in hindsight, proved to be catastrophic. My people were proud, Colonel, sometimes too proud for their own good."

"You say that if you are the only one left."

"The chances are small that anyone of my kind survived the devastation of the war and the years since. The only reason I did was because the Queen wanted me alive."

"Do you have any clue as to why?"

"No idea." M'Rhinna admitted. "The more I resisted the angrier she became, I fully expected her to kill me many years ago. I was valuable to her somehow and as you probably know, the Wraith are a patient race." She said and he nodded.

"Yes, they say that a lot."

"I also find that if you can get a Wraith to start a monologue, they will continue for hours. They do seem to like the sound of their own voice." She said and thought for a moment. "A bit like Dr. McKay, actually." The Colonel's stern demeanor cracked slightly and he allowed himself a small amused smile.

"He does seem to go on, doesn't he."

"You are lucky; you do not work with him for hours on end. I found my lab in the infirmary a safe refuge, but recently he has started working in there with me. He over complicates things and describes everything in many words when only a few would have sufficed." She said. "It is a rather…trying trait of his."

"I still don't like the fact that you feed off humans." Caldwell said.

"I have been using the blood supply of the infirmary as my food source. Have you brought the containment vessel from Earth that Samantha requested?"

"Yes, it's being held in one of the cargo rooms of the base."

"Then I will have to drink blood no longer, all I need to do is fill the vessel with the water of my home world and my dietary needs will be met." M'Rhinna said.

"There is so much we don't know about your kind."

"Ask and I will answer, I have no secrets."

"Have you ever killed a human while feeding?"

"Not intentionally. When my kind first reaches maturity and they have to imbibe blood to survive, accidents can regrettably happen, but we are trained to recognize when it is time to stop so the donor survives the encounter." She said and he nodded. "I am glad we had this talk, Colonel. I believe it has…cleared the waters, so to speak."

"What I think of you really doesn't matter, it's the I.O.A's decision that matters in whether or not you stay here."

"Even so, thank you for agreeing to speak with me." She and nodded once at him before turning and walking away.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

M'Rhinna drew her gun and fired once, watching as the paper target disintegrated into a fine gray ash. John looked at the now empty holder and back at M'Rhinna who was sliding the gun back into the holster around her thigh after resetting the safety.

"Just out of morbid curiosity," he started and she looked at him. "What does that do to a person?"

"It leaves a really big hole."

"I can see how it would." He said.

"I liked Ronon's weapon, it had a nice feel to it, a nice weight that made it balanced." She said.

"Yeah, some of the weapons tech people are working on a reverse engineer, but they're not having much luck." He said. "I called first dibs." He added and she gave a small amused smile. "If you don't mind me asking, how are things between you two?" she shrugged, making a small sound.

"They're there, I guess. We aren't professing our undying love for one another, but we aren't completely ignoring each other either." She said, picking up the 9mm that was lying on a table and examining it after ejecting the clip and putting it on safety.

"Back on your home world, those things making us hear the voices of people we know,"

"They make you hear the voice of someone you care very deeply about calling out for your help so you'll be more inclined to go to it."

"Yeah, that. Ronon said 'Melena', you're not all curious about who she is, or was?"

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit curious, but that's his business. If he wants to tell me then he will, otherwise I won't ask." She said and he nodded. "Is that all for today?"

"Yep, see you later." He said and she left the shooting range.

M'Rhinna and Teyla sat across from each other at the mess hall table and M'Rhinna watched with a fond smile as Teyla ate.

"What?" Teyla asked finally, setting down her fork.

"It's nothing. I just…I just wish sold food sustained me." She said.

"Can't you eat solid food, isn't that what I heard?" she asked.

"Oh, I can eat it. It just makes me sick a while afterwards." She said.

"I did not know that."

"No one did, until now." She said and Teyla nodded. "So please, continue eating, your son is wondering why you stopped."

"Does he speak with you often?" Teyla asked, taking a tentative bite of food.

"Only when I'm in close proximity, his mind is strong, but it doesn't have range yet. He can't cast it out and find me."

"Will he ever?"

"I can teach him, if you'd like, once he gets grown enough physically."

"I think that's really up to him." Teyla said and M'Rhinna was silent for a moment.

"He's fine with it. He wants to learn." She said. "In fact he's quite excited with the idea that I'll be teaching him. At first he thought that I was like he is, with Wraith DNA, but I informed him of my uniqueness and he finds it quite…fascinating. Your son has quite a brilliant mind, he'll be giving Rodney trouble." That made Teyla smile. "I have been preparing him for the outside world, letting him see through my eyes and access my memories, select memories of course. He is after all a child."

"Have you ever thought of having children, M'Rhinna?" Teyla asked delicately.

"I did once, thought about having children, but based on my current situation, that is quite impossible."

"Because you and Ronon don't..."

"Match up, exactly. The regular human has forty-eight chromosomes, the building blocks of your genetic code, what makes you, you in essence. The normal _Noctin_ however, has two hundred thousand chromosomes. The pairs wouldn't match up, so the only way Ronon could ever father a child with me is if he was _Noctin_, and that can not happen."

"Hey." They looked over and saw John and Ronon walk over to join them at the table, taking their respective seats. "What're you guys talking about?"

"The fact that Ronon could never father a child with me." M'Rhinna said bluntly and Ronon coughed after inhaling orange juice into his lungs. She rubbed his back soothingly and he cast her a pleading glance. Leaning over she whispered something in his ear that made him smile before she laid a gentle kiss on his temple, her hand falling to her lap. Reaching under the table, he grabbed her hand, lacing his fingers in hers.

"So I was telling Ronon about that gun of yours." John said.

"Yeah?" M'Rhinna asked with a smile and he nodded.

"I can't wait to test it out." Ronon said with a small smile.

"Well we can go to the firing range after you're done eating." She said.

"_I can think of something else we could do."_ He thought, sending it along the familiar pathway.

"_Oh really? What might that be?"_ her tone in his mind was playful. He sent her several vivid images and chuckled when she turned bright red, her eyes widening slightly.

"Do we even want to know?" Teyla asked and Ronon shook his head, trying not to laugh.

"No, not really." He said, M'Rhinna's hand pulling from his to lie on his thigh close to his knee, giving him a quick but strong squeeze.

Later during the day, they were in their room and Ronon was laying face down the bed, his face buried between his pillows and his shirt flung onto a chair. M'Rhinna was sitting on his butt while she kneaded the muscles of his back, shoulders and neck. When she neared his neck and shoulders however, he winced and grunted in pain.

"Okay, what's wrong?" she asked finally, her hands stopping.

"Nothing, keep going." He said his voice slightly muffled.

"It's not nothing, tell me." She said and her hands left his back completely as she climbed off of him to sit next to him on the bed. He rolled over onto his side so he could look at her.

"My neck just really hurts from my hair." He admitted finally. "I have a headache all the time from it and whenever I fight with John and I don't tie it back, it feels like it's trying rip my head off my shoulders." He said, settling against the pillow, his eyes closing. His eyes opened again when she touched his cheek tenderly.

"I can feel how heavy it is when I move it, but to have it actually attached, I don't know what that's like. I don't like you in pain, Ronon."

"I can't sleep at night anymore, my head and neck hurt so bad." Ronon said and she scowled thoughtfully.

"Then I guess we have to do something about that." She said and got off the bed, holding her hand down to him. He took it and slid off the bed, letting her lead him into the bathroom. She positioned him in front of the mirror and took a dark knife that he knew would be deadly sharp from a sheath at her low back. Standing in front of him, she reached up, taking a thick dreadlock in her hands and raised the knife. He didn't even feel the slightest tug when the knife passed though where the new growth of hair ended and the dread started. The thick tendril fell to the floor and she moved to the next one.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Ronon grinned almost gleefully as he ran his fingers through his now short spiky hair while M'Rhinna picked up the dreadlocks from the bathroom floor. His hair was maybe only a few inches long and stuck up all over the place but his scalp instantly felt better now that the weight had been taken off of it, his headache already starting to fade. He could actually feel the air moving through his hair and touching the sensitive skin of his scalp as he ran his fingers though it.

"These feel about seven pounds." She noted grimly. "No wonder you were in so much pain." Dumping them in the trashcan by the sink, she went up on tiptoe and kissed the back of his neck that was completely uncovered, save for a few curly wisps of hair. He turned and faced her and smiled as she reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, something she couldn't do before. "Your hair is almost baby soft."

"Thank you for doing that." He said, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her against him.

"Like I said, I don't like seeing you in pain." She went up on tiptoe again and kissed his lower lip quickly, going back down. "Do you want to finish your massage?"

"Yes." He said and she pulled away from him, going back into the bedroom with him following.

Ronon and M'Rhinna sat in the mess hall while Ronon ate breakfast, M'Rhinna of course eating nothing; instead she was reading medical journals on a tablet, one of her hands at the base of Ronon's neck, his fingers twisting a fine tendril of hair gently, almost absently. Her fingers began to apply gentle pressure to the muscles along either side of his brainstem and he almost face-planted into his tray as his neck started to relax.

"I love what you can do with your fingers." He said, his head bowing so she had better access to the muscles, catching her smile out of the corner of his eyes.

"You all right, buddy?" John asked as he and Teyla sat down.

"I'm good." Ronon said languidly.

"Hey," John said. "Your dreads are gone."

"M'Rhinna cut them off last night, they were causing me too much pain." He said simply.

"It is rather odd to see you without them." Teyla said.

"Yeah, but it feels so much better now."

"They were giving him whiplash." M'Rhinna said almost absently.

"Whiplash?" Ronon and Teyla asked in unison.

"It's where the tendons and muscles of the neck are hyper extended from a sudden jerking trauma or weight. His dreadlocks were quite heavy and were pulling on his neck whenever they whipped around." She said.

"Good thing you cut them off then." Teyla said. "M'Rhinna, what are you reading?"

"Medical journals that Dr. Keller was kind enough to give me. I know everything there is to know about Noctin anatomy, but almost nothing about human. If I am to be any help at all around here, I would like to know how to help a human in medical need, just in case." She said.

"Except for the teeth thing, I thought humans and Noctin's were anatomically the same." John said.

"On the outside yes, except for the teeth, but internally that's another matter. We have organs and glands that you do not."

"Such as?" Teyla asked.

"The human heart has four chambers, the right and left ventricle and the right and left atrium. The Noctin heart however had six chambers, the same four as the human heart, but then there two small chambers on either side of the heart, one attached to the right atrium and one attached to the left ventricle. As the heart beats, small amounts of positive electrical current go to these chambers, called the myora, and are stored in the negatively charged muscle tissues. In the event that the heart stops, the muscle switches polarity and the stored current is expelled into the surrounding heart, jolting it back into activity." She explained this all while still reading from the tablet. "Also, we carry a gland that attached to our sweat glands and is activated at will. When activated it releases an extremely low level pheromone into the surrounding air, giving the people in the immediate vicinity a feeling of happiness and relaxation. The level can be controlled of course."

"Have you ever used this on us?" Teyla asked.

"No, your feelings about me, whatever they may be are strictly your own. The only person on this base that I have ever used this on is Colonel Caldwell, and that is only because he was being so very disagreeable. It dulled his prejudices towards me and my race, but by no means does he consider me a friend. The effects are temporary and he is probably back to hating my kind for being like the Wraith." Ronon opened his mouth to speak but she put her fingers against his lips, silencing him. "I have accepted the similarities a long while ago, Ronon, there is no use in saying there aren't any." Her hand moved to cup his cheek, her thumb moving back and forth over his lower lip. "I appreciate that you are adamant that there aren't any though, makes me feel a little better to know that not everyone thinks my kind are evil life sucking monsters."

"Can I ask you something? It may be a tad personal." Teyla asked.

"Go ahead." M'Rhinna said.

"What does blood taste like to you?" The table suddenly went still and M'Rhinna looked up slowly from the tablet at Teyla.

"If I had to describe it." She said and paused, thinking it over. "Blood tastes like liquid fire; it doesn't burn though it warms me from the inside out." Her hand went back to massaging the muscles of the back of Ronon's neck and he started to make a contented sound, almost like a purr.

Jennifer looked through the microscope at the small sample of M'Rhinna's blood on a slide and then looked away, writing notes on the tablet with the stylus. Looking back through the eye piece, she caught a glimpse of a dark shape just out of line of sight but when she sought it out, she saw nothing. Dismissing it, she took more notes and sent the magnified image of M'Rhinna's blood to the large screen, starting to highlight and isolate certain unique characteristics with her laser pen. Pressing a button on the pen, the isolated items went to a split screen and the computer began to analyze them the best it could. Human in theory, but not in design. That seemed to be the constant theme with M'Rhinna.

She caught the dark mass again in the corner of her eye and looked at the magnified sample, but it was clear. A thin thread of darkness shot through the screen and massed in one of the corners like an ink spot. She circled a bit of it with her laser pen and the computer zoomed in.

Jennifer's eyes widened as the computer enhanced an image of millions of dark organisms, moving en masse through M'Rhinna's blood.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

"M'Rhinna!" The Noctin stopped and turned when she heard Jennifer Keller calling her.

"Doctor Keller, how are you?" she asked as Jennifer jogged to her.

"I'm doing okay. What are you up to today?" she asked.

"The Daedelus is taking Rodney and me to Nocti along with a contingent of Marines and Rodney's team of scientists. Dr. McKay wishes to examine some of the labs there." She said. "In fact I was just about to go meet up with him in the control room so we could be transported aboard. Why? Did you need something?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something. How long will you be gone?"

"That really depends on Rodney, I guess." She said. "But I estimate no more than a day."

"Are Ronon and Colonel Sheppard going with you?" Jennifer asked.

"No, I managed to convince them to stay here, they would be extremely bored watching me, Rodney and a group of scientists flitter about the laboratory."

"What are the Marines for?"

"The only way to access the labs is from the surface of the planet, they are too well shielded to transport directly into them and the wildlife is quite dangerous."

"But you didn't tell Ronon that." Jennifer remarked with a smile.

"Goodness, no. He would insist on going if I did, I told him that Colonel Caldwell would be beaming us directly into the labs." M'Rhinna said, also smiling. "Now, Doctor, we will talk when I return. Okay?"

"Okay." Jennifer said and M'Rhinna turned and walked away, disappearing around a corner.

Rodney looked over as M'Rhinna climbed the stairs into the control room.

"There you are!" he said, generally pleased to see her.

"Sorry for the delay, Doctor Keller wanted to talk about something." She said and stood next to him, the Marines and Rodney's team already on board the ship. Rodney touched his radio at his ear and there was a small burst of static before the signal cleared.

"Colonel, this is Rodney McKay. M'Rhinna is here with me, we are ready for transport." He said into it.

"_Stand by Doctor."_ The Colonel said.

"I've never done this before, anything I should expect?" M'Rhinna asked.

"You shouldn't feel a thing." Rodney said.

"_Transporting now."_ There was a flash of light and a slight soaring feeling in the stomach and they were standing on the bridge of the Daedelus facing Colonel Caldwell and his crew. "Ms. Trin, welcome to the Earth ship Daedelus." Caldwell said and she looked around, taking in her surroundings.

"Impressive." She said.

"We'll be leaving for Nocti in a few short minutes, the trip should be about two hours by hyperdrive." He said and she nodded in understanding.

"I'll show you around." Rodney said and she followed him off into the ship.

M'Rhinna listened to everything Rodney had to say about the ship as he led her around, its design, armaments, and systems.

"And this," he said as they entered a room with many stations. "Is the central control room. Except for navigation and weapons every system can be monitored and controlled from this room."

"Fascinating." She said and meant it.

"Did I tell you that we got the technology to build this ship and others like it from the Asgard?"

"You did."

"Well, this is an Asgard." He said leading her to a central station where a small gray alien was working. He looked up at her from the controls with solid black eyes. "His name is Hermiod. Hermiod, this is M'Rhinna Trin."

"Its lovely to meet you Hermiod." M'Rhinna said and she meant that as well.

"It is quite a rare experience to be meeting you, M'Rhinna Trin." He said. "I have read extensively of your race from the Ancient database on Atlantis, and I was intrigued by the notion that your race had hyperdrive engines on your ships, however faulty they might have been."

"Every technology has glitches that need to be worked out." She said with a shrug.

"Indeed." He said.

"The Asgards were in treaty with the Ancients." Rodney said.

"Really?" M'Rhinna asked and Hermiod nodded slowly. "My race did not know them until they were ready to leave Earth."

"And you personally worked extensively with them for several million years." Hermiod said and she nodded.

"Holy crap." Rodney said and they both looked at him. "I didn't even think of that. You're really old."

"Yes, Rodney, thank you for that." She said with a scowl.

"_Doctor Rodney McKay, M'Rhinna Trin and all those going to Nocti, report to the bridge, we will be dropping out of hyperspace shortly._" The announcement came over the loud speakers.

"Hermiod, I would love to talk with you extensively, but it seems that will have to wait. Another time?" she asked and he nodded. She gave a short bow and she and Rodney left the control room, making their way back to the bridge.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

The moment M'Rhinna entered the lab stations came to life, screens flickering to activity showing projects that had been worked on before everything was sealed. Going to a station she began to bring up menus and sub-menus, taking the tablet she had brought with her and adjusting something on the screen. All of the images translated themselves English and she stepped back.

"Go ahead." She said waving her arm at the stations and Rodney and his team descended on them.

Countless hours later and M'Rhinna was lying on the floor in the corner on her stomach, reading a book that John had downloaded onto her tablet. It was about a vampyre (he couldn't stop grinning when he told her this) being interviewed by a newspaper journalist. The prose was a bit wordy for her liking and the vampyre being interviewed tended to whine too much, but other than that it was interesting. She knew that a faction of her people had decided to stay on Earth when the majority had left with the Lanteans and she couldn't help but wonder if there were any left, and if there were, how they were faring. John had told her that they had made a movie out of the book and offered to show it to her if she liked the book.

"M'Rhinna?" she didn't bother looking up from the tablet.

"Yes, Rodney?" she asked.

"We seem to have a problem." She looked up and at the flashing warning signs on the screens. Sighing, she closed her eyes and cast her mind out, tapping into the telepathic interface. Back tracing the source of the problem, she easily fixed it and the warning signs disappeared. "Next time," she opened her eyes. "Don't attempt to modify the power distribution of the lab until you know these systems as good as I do, which would take a few million years at your current stage of evolution. If you have a question about something, just ask me." His answer was unheard as she went back to her book.

By the time they all got back to Atlantis, the base was asleep and fatigue hung heavily on her body and mind. After stopping at the mess hall to get a large bottle of her planets water kept at room temperature, she made her way to her and Ronon's room, draining the bottle before she got there.

She disrobed as the door closed behind her and climbed into bed with her back to Ronon, smiling wearily as he automatically cuddled up against her back, his arm wrapping around her waist and his face buried in her hair. M'Rhinna put her hand on his and closed her eyes, falling to sleep.

Somehow they managed to sleep through the startling, ear-piercing wake-up alarm that rang through the base at 6 every morning (or oh-six hundred hours, as they put it) Atlantis standard time. She did wake very slowly however to someone running their finger down the side of her face over and over again. Taking in a deep breath through her nose, Ronon's scent overwhelmed her senses as it always did and she was smiling even before she opened her eyes. He was leaning over her propped up on his elbow, the blankets pooled in his lap, his hair sleep tousled and his chest bare. Seeing she was awake, his hand slid to lie against her neck, wrapping around it loosely.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Almost noon." Ronon said.

"How did we…"

"I don't know." He said and leaned down further, kissing her tenderly. She instantly rose to meet him, her arm wrapping around his side.

"Rodney will probably be expecting me in his lab." She said as they broke the kiss to breathe. "And John probably has something for you two to do today." He simply smiled at her, his green eyes sparkling.

"Let's be late." He said and she smiled back.

"Later than we already are?"

"Yeah." He said and gently pressed his lips to hers, his hand sliding down into the blanket to wrap her leg around his waist.

"Hey sleepy heads." John said as he joined them at the mess hall table. Ronon, who was sporting a fresh pair of bite marks, was eating a late lunch and M'Rhinna was back to reading medical journals. "How'd you two manage to sleep late?"

"Not a clue." M'Rhinna said, not looking up from the tablet.

"We woke up a little after noon." Ronon said. "And then we uh…took some time getting ready." The two men chuckled like morons at the innuendo and pounded fists while M'Rhinna just smiled and shook her head.

"No matter how long I live I will never understand the male mind." She said and Ronon leaned to the side, kissing her cheek. "Yeah, yeah, you say that now."

"How's Teyla?" Ronon asked, looking at John.

"Doc has her on bed rest since the baby is a few days late, she wants Teyla in the infirmary when she starts to go into labor." John said. "Keller's going to give it a couple more days before she induces labor."

"How's Teyla dealing with that?" M'Rhinna asked.

"Oh, it's driving her absolutely insane." He said and she chuckled.

"I can speak with the boy if you'd like. Ask him if he knows what the hold up is." She offered.

"That'd be great, thanks. I was going to make up a tray of food for her and bring it to her, you can join me." He said and she nodded.

"M'Rhinna!" Teyla smiled, looking sincerely pleased to see her as she, John, and Ronon walked into the observation room, John carrying a tray laden with fruit and raw vegetables. "Get me out of here!" her smile didn't change one bit and M'Rhinna laughed.

"John has taken my offer of conversing with your son to see if he knows what the problem is." M'Rhinna said.

"Go right ahead." Teyla said.

"It's a much stronger path if I'm in physical contact with the person, and since I can't touch your son yet, I'll have to lay my hand on your stomach, is that okay?"

"Yes." Teyla said and M'Rhinna stepped forward, gently laying her hand flat against Teyla's distended abdomen.

"What did you say you were going to name him, again?" M'Rhinna asked.

"David Tagan." John said and she nodded, closing her eyes and concentrating on the link between them, strengthening it with her mind.

"_David Tagan, can you hear me?"_ there was silence, save for a small but fast heart beat loud in her ears.

"_Yes."_ It was a young boy's voice, but it was strong and sure.

"_David, why have you not been born yet?"_

"_I don't want to be yet."_

"_Why not?"_

"_I'm safe and warm here."_

"_I know that sweetheart, but you're causing your mommy and daddy a great deal of worry."_

"_But…"_

"_It's time to come out David, if you don't then I can not show you all of those things I said I would."_

"_Like?"_

"_Well, the city for one thing. Atlantis is a beautiful place, images from my mind and seeing through my eyes will not suffice. You have to see it yourself. Please David, it is time."_ There was a long pause.

"_Okay."_ M'Rhinna broke her contact and looked down at the bed as a wet spot grew large under the sheets.

"Get Doctor Keller, Teyla's water just broke." M'Rhinna said pulling her hand from Teyla's stomach and Ronon ran from the room. Teyla's eyes went large and she took in a harsh breath as a wave of contractions hit. John went to her side and she grabbed his hand, squeezing hard. "Teyla, breathe easy. Inhale, exhale, breathe through the pain." Teyla reached for her with her other hand and M'Rhinna took it, standing on the other side of her. She cried out as another, stronger wave hit and Jennifer rushed into the room with her nurses, already in medical gear and gloves, the nurses wheeling in the necessary equipment. She pulled the sheet away and discretely pushed back Teyla's hospital gown.

"She's at ten centimeters, I've never known a delivery to happen this fast." Jennifer said. "Teyla, now is the time that you need to push." Teyla cried out as the contractions hit again. "Push, Teyla!" Teyla's grip on M'Rhinna's and John's hand tightened. "That's it, push!" her grip tightened even more to an almost bone crushing degree and John grimaced in pain. "Push! The baby is crowning, one more time, push! There, all done. Clamps." The nurse handed her the instrument and Jennifer then cut the umbilical cord. The baby gave out an ear piercing wail as she wrapped him in a blanket. "Whoa, he's got a set of lungs on him." Jennifer said as she took him over to a small tub filled with warm water and began to wash him off before wrapping a clean blanket around him and going back over the bed. "Here you go, your son." She said and Teyla released John and M'Rhinna's hands to gently take the infant from her, holding him in her arms. David Tagan Emmagen-Sheppard was quiet as he looked up at them with large, curious dark eyes and then he looked at M'Rhinna who was giving him a proud smile. He looked back up at his mother and reached up with his tiny hand, touching her nose and mouth. Teyla kissing his palm gently and he settled into the blanket against his mother's warm body, going to sleep.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Jennifer kept Teyla and her new baby in the infirmary for a few more days before she released her. In those few days, people came in and out of the observation room bringing gifts and saying their congratulations. A pile of teddy bears, other stuffed animals, and blue baby clothes lay on a table. Samantha had even found a way to get a basinet onto Atlantis that had a motorized mobile of brightly colored fish suspended above it that played A Teddy Bears Picnic when moving. John had told them what the song was when they asked. The basinet had been moved to right next to the bed and when Teyla and John finally agreed to it, David was placed gently onto the soft blankets on his back, already dressed in a pale blue jumper and the mobile was started. He stared up at the fish curiously for several minutes as they spun before falling asleep to the gentle tune.

They all didn't fail to notice how M'Rhinna was almost constantly by the baby's side, either sitting next to the basinet or when Teyla and John said it was okay, holding him in her arms. When she was holding him, they both had a distant look to their eyes, as if they weren't seeing what was around them.

"I wonder where they are." John whispered to Teyla as they looked at the two, M'Rhinna sitting on the floor with her back against the wall, holding David gently in her arms.

"At his request I'm showing him my planet the way I choose to remember it, before we lost the Great War." M'Rhinna said her voice a monotone. "I'm letting him see my memories of my friends and family. His mental abilities are quite strong." She seemed to snap out of whatever trance she was in, her eyes blinking rapidly and her head shaking. "But now, he's hungry and wants his mom." She took him back over to Teyla, who took him from her with gentle arms and began to breastfeed him. M'Rhinna went for the door where Ronon was waiting patiently and John followed after her.

"Can I talk to you two for a minute?" he asked and they nodded. John followed them out of the infirmary into the hallway outside. "Ronon, you're my best friend." He said and Ronon nodded.

"Same here." He said.

"M'Rhinna, you and the baby seem to have a connection that I…I don't quite understand." John said and she nodded.

"It's complicated." She said.

"The point is, and I've already talked this over with Teyla, I actually had to explain to her what the whole thing meant but anyway, I'd like you two to be David's godparents. Technically you'd both have to be Christian, but since you're not even from Earth, that's kind of a moot point." John said. "Basically, if something happens to Teyla and me, you two would be David's guardians. You would raise him as if you were his parents."

"John…" M'Rhinna started but he cut her off with a raised hand.

"I chose you two for very special reasons. Ronon, you would teach him how to be strong, fearless, and a survivor. M'Rhinna, you would teach him how to…hone whatever abilities he has or will develop." The two were silent. "Well? What do you say?"

"John, I'm honored, really." she said. "I'd love to be his god…mother?" she made that last bit a question and he nodded.

"No offence, but I hope I never have to take care of him." Ronon said and John snorted.

"Yeah, me either."

"But just so you know, if that ever happens, we will raise him like he was our own son."

"I know you will." John said and the two men shared a fraternal moment of understanding.

"Well I'm starving." And the moment was over. "I'm going to get something to eat, drink, whatever." M'Rhinna said and grabbed Ronon's hand, pulling him out of the infirmary towards the mess hall.

That night, Ronon idly stroked M'Rhinna dark hair as she lay against his chest, her fingers lightly touching the scars marring his skin.

"Can I ask you something?" Ronon asked and she looked up at him, making a sound. "If we were able to have children, would you want to?" she looked away, a furrow appearing between her brows.

"Would you want to?" she asked, looking back up at him.

"Melena and I…" he paused, "We weren't able to have children. No matter how hard we tried, no matter how many doctors or medical specialists we went to, she just couldn't get pregnant. At first we thought that maybe it was me, so the doctor used my brothers genetic…stuff, but that didn't work either."

"Wait…you have a brother?" M'Rhinna asked.

"_Had_ a brother." He said and she went quiet so he continued. "Then we realized that for some reason, her body would not allow her to get pregnant. Then, one day, it all just sort of…didn't matter anymore." Her hand touched his jaw and her thumb began to stroke his cheek. He grabbed her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing her fingers and holding it against his chest. "What about you? Did you and Krell ever want to have kids?"

"I wanted children, but we both kept putting it off and putting it off, both being so busy with our work that by the time we finally had the chance to actually put some effort into conceiving and raising a child, the Wraith War had started and we realized that the universe at that time wasn't a safe place for a child, much less a pregnant woman." M'Rhinna said.

"So you and Krell didn't really…you know."

"Oh no, we did, regularly, but we did it at times when we knew that it wouldn't result in a pregnancy. That and our doctors had means of keeping me from getting pregnant until I wanted to."

"So back to my original question," he said it in such a way that made her laugh. "If we were able to have kids, would you want to?"

"Yeah, I guess I would. You?"

"I'd have to think about it."

"Well we can't have kids in any case." She said. "So let's not think about it anymore?" he nodded and she snuggled into his chest, getting comfortable and closing her eyes.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

"Knock, knock." Sam looked up from her desk at John in the doorway.

"Colonel, please come in and have a seat." she said smiling and he sat down in one of the chair across from the desk. "What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to take Teyla and the baby to Earth to meet my brother." He said, getting right to the point. "And while I'm there, I was planning on asking her to marry me."

"What does Jennifer say about the baby traveling?" Sam asked.

"Well she doesn't know what affect traveling through the gate will have on him but the Daedelus is due to leave Earth I think today and it takes three weeks or so for them to get back here and by then the Doc says that the baby should be okay to travel." John said. "And things around here have been quiet, we haven't heard any kind of noise about Michael since we got Teyla back, it doesn't seem like he's been continuing his plan to conquer the universe since his 'golden child' was taken away."

"Which is unlike him." Sam said.

"Yeah, I did think that was kind of odd that he would just give up like that." John said. "Maybe he's planning something, or maybe he was killed when his cruiser blew up."

"But you don't believe that."

"Not for a second, that Jumper had to have gone somewhere." John said. "So, getting back on topic, requesting permission to take leave on Earth?"

"I'm going to have to think about it."

"Yes, ma'am. Besides, knowing Ronon he'll want to tag along and then M'Rhinna will also want to go."

"And I'd rather she stay here and continue working on her….Wraith blocking serum, for lack of a better term."

"She has been working on it pretty much every day for the month and a half that she's been here." John said. "It took her who knows how many centuries to get to this point. She went from working on it, being tortured by the Wraith for ten thousand years, almost dying from a Wraith poison and back to working on it. The woman needs some serious downtime."

"And she could always take her research with her and run simulations while she's there." Sam mused.

"Exactly."

"Well, I'm still going to have to think about your leave request, but if I decide that you can go and M'Rhinna wants to go, she can."

"Thank you for your time." John said standing from the chair.

"Where are you off to now?" Sam asked, leaning back in her chair.

"Sparring with Ronon, he promised not to use any of his new freaky superpowers."

"Well good luck."

"Yeah, I'm going to need it." He said leaving the office and she chuckled before returning to her work.

M'Rhinna sat in the window ledge, once again reading medical journals while John and Ronon fought. She looked up every now and then, assessing their movements with a military mind before looking back down at the tablet. She knew the moment the fight ended and grabbed the water bottles next to her, tossing them to the boys without looking at them, knowing where they were by the sounds of their heart beats. Ronon's was slightly different from John's, slower and stronger due to her blood that had minutely transformed him.

"Thanks." They said in unison.

"So, M'Rhinna," she looked up at John when he spoke. "When are you and I going to fight?"

"That would be completely unfair." She said.

"If I wanted a fair fight, I'd fight someone who _isn't_ from this galaxy." He said and she chuckled.

"Very true." She said. "How about tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow it is."

"_M'Rhinna? It's Doctor Keller."_ M'Rhinna touched the intercom at her ear.

"Yes, Jennifer?"

"_I need to speak to you immediately."_

"I'm on my way." She said, surprised at the amount of command in the young doctors voice. She cast a confused look at John and Ronon who were looking at her for an explanation and vanished from sight.

She reappeared in the infirmary and blanched at the images of her blood up on the large screens, watching as the dark organisms swam around on screen. Ronon appeared next to her and John ran into the infirmary shortly after that.

"You guys have an unfair advantage." He said and looked at the screens too. "Okay, what's that?"

"Why don't you ask M'Rhinna? I found it in her blood." Jennifer said.

"If these things are in her blood, we need to find a way to get them out before they hurt her." Ronon said and looked at M'Rhinna, seeing her reaction. "Rhin? What's wrong? What are these things?" she turned her attention towards him at the sound of her nickname and then back at the screens, her mouth opening as if she was preparing to talk but no sound came out.

"Whatever they are, they're extremely intelligent." Jennifer said. "I only found them because they wanted me to."

"What does that mean? What are they?" John asked and Jennifer reached over, striking a few keys on her computer. Another image came up, an enhanced image of one of the creatures. It had a black body with many deep red eyes, long spindly legs coming out from its sides like a spider. They watched as it moved, its legs twitching as it swam through the blood and attached to another creature, their legs weaving together. She exited out of the enhanced image and they all looked at M'Rhinna.

"I've been watching them for the past couple days now, and when I noticed that they started to die off I pricked my finger and added a drop of my blood to the sample and watched as they attacked the blood cells, eating or converting them." She said.

"Not converting." M'Rhinna whispered. "Making nests out them, human red blood cells are rich in the protein they need to start the mating process. Then they used the partially depleted cell to make nests so they can lay two eggs. Once the eggs hatch and the parents die, the young will eat the nest and take over their parents work. They don't multiply so much as keep level of…infestation normal."

"What are they?" Jennifer asked.

"They're what make me…me." She said. "They're what make Noctins what they are. Now that a section of the mother colony has revealed itself, go ahead and stick Ronon's blood sample under the microscope." She said and Jennifer did and they watched in shocked silence as several small colonies swam around Ronon's blood like schools of fish, working in perfect unison. "When their host is injured, they go to the site and repair the damage, giving an appearance of rapid healing." She suddenly reached out and ran her nail in a short slash across Ronon's arm. The skin split and blood began to run down his skin.

"Ow!" he said and they watched as the skin mended, leaving a smooth expanse.

"So that was them, pulling the skin together and sealing it up." John said and she nodded, wiping the blood off Ronon's arm with her thumb and then bringing her thumb to her mouth, wrapping her lips around the pad and sucking it clean. "What happens if they all die? Do you turn human?"

"If they die, I die." She said. "I was born with them, they are me."

"What about in Ronon?" Jennifer asked. "What if these things all die in him?"

"He will lose every ability that I gave him and turn back into a fully fledged human." She said.

"How did you change him when you were on that Hive ship?" John asked.

"I started the creation of them in his mind. Humans have the chemistry in their bodies to bring these beings into life, but they are never brought together naturally, I merely brought them together and gave the command of life." She said.

"Then what? They did your dirty work for you rewiring Ronon's brain?" John asked. He was angry, she didn't fault him for it she created alien organisms in his friends' body to suit her own agenda. She just didn't know at the time that she would…dangerous territory, that train of thought.

"You remember when Colonel Carter had asked me if it were possible to turn a human into a Noctin?" M'Rhinna asked and they nodded.

"Yeah, what about it?" Ronon asked.

"I lied."


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

"What do you mean," Jennifer started. "You lied?"

"It is possible to turn a human into a Noctin, but it's a complicated process." M'Rhinna said.

"Why don't you walk us through it." John said.

"It first starts with a mental transformation, preparing the mind for the enhanced abilities." M'Rhinna said.

"Sounds familiar, you did it to Ronon." Jennifer said. "Does that mean you intend on turning him?"

"Oh gods no." she said, looking appalled at the very idea. "I would never take his humanity away from him like that."

"But…" She looked at Ronon when he spoke. "You won't age and die, I will. You wouldn't turn me to keep me alive?"

"If you were dying of some incurable disease or fatal injury, I would save you yes, but if you were dying of old age…" her voice cracked and tears filled her eyes. "I would let you go. As much as it would kill me inside, I would let you go."

"'Rhin." Ronon said, turning to her and reaching up to cup her face in his hands.

"It would tear my heart out to watch you wither away, but I couldn't steal away your life by turning you. In the end you would hate me for it because you would have to watch as everyone you know and care about aged and died. I would do it to save your life, but not to save my heart." She said and he pulled her into the warm safety of his arms.

"What's the rest of the transformation?" Ronon asked.

"I would have to drain you to the point of death and when you were on the edge, you would drink my blood, enough to replace what you lost. Your heart would stop and you'd cease to breathe as the organisms changed your genetic code and then you would wake a Noctin." She said with her cheek against his chest, his heart beat loud in her ear. "Without the mental transformation, if I did turn you, you would be a creature driven insane by the mental abilities suddenly forced on you and then I would have to kill you before you killed someone."

"Has that ever happened before?" John asked.

"Yes, unfortunately it can happen if the mental transformation isn't complete before the physical one is started. Those poor people are put down immediately."

"You make it sound as if they were rabid animals instead of people." Jennifer said.

"Once they become Blood Crazy, they are nothing but rabid animals. There is no controlling them, taming them, or reasoning with them, they exist purely for the taste of blood and the high of the kill. There is also no reversing the Change, it is permanent." She said and looked up at him. "So if you ever did become sick or injured, I couldn't turn you to save you and then turn you back into a human, you'd be a Noctin forever."

"I'd learn to deal with it." Ronon whispered.

"I'm not turning you, in any case, so you'll never have to." She whispered back.

"Getting back to topic," Jennifer started, "Are these creatures aggressive?"

"No," M'Rhinna looked at her, shaking her head before laying it once again on Ronon's chest, her ear over his heart. "They just simply do what they do. I know they look frightening, but they would never actively attack something, they just…exist and do what they're told."

"What if they're told to attack?" John asked.

"They still wouldn't." she said, turning her head to look at him. "They will attack and destroy blood cells for food, but they won't attack and kill a human. Besides, they can only be controlled by the person they inhabit, well; I can control Ronon's because they originally inhabited me."

"Really?" Ronon asked and she looked up at him, nodding. A small smile grew on her face as his brows furrowed and his nostrils flared. "Mint? Why do I smell mint?"

"I told them to activate the memory you have of the air of my home planet, from when you first rescued me. Sensory memory is stronger than visual memory."

"What're the ones in my blood surviving on?" Ronon asked. "I'm not Noctin so I don't drink blood."

"Whenever you…you know, take in some of mine, they feed on that and any proteins from your food that make their way into your blood stream, but leaving enough so you stay healthy and they also keep you healthy by repairing any damage, no matter how small." M'Rhinna explained and he nodded. He suddenly groaned and his head dropped down in her shoulder, which made her laugh. "I told them to bring up the memory of me giving him a neck massage." She said and John chuckled.

"You're going to have to give me one of those these days; Ronon really seems to enjoy them." He said.

"I don't actually have to touch you to give you a massage." She said looking at him and his head dropped forward onto his chest.

"_Jesus Christ_." He groaned. "I can actually feel your fingers on my neck."

"And just so Jennifer doesn't feel left out." M'Rhinna said and looked at the doctor who was looking at them in surprise. Jennifer suddenly shuddered and let out a small happy sound.

"Back massage." She said. "Lower back." She said and sighed as M'Rhinna's phantom fingers moved to her lower back, easing the tense muscles into relaxation.

"I'm surprised you two are calm about this." M'Rhinna said. "I'm touching you without actually laying a hand on you."

"We've spent enough time around you that now any superpowers you might show doesn't shock us." John said. "Just don't stop."

"How many people can you massage at the same time like this?" Jennifer asked with her shoulders slumped.

"I'm at my limit, its takes an incredible amount of concentration and compartmentalization to keep the memory forward in Ronon's mind, and still be able to massage Johns' neck and your back." M'Rhinna said.

"If you opened up a massage business in this city, you'd make a fortune." John said and she laughed.

"Okay, I'm starting to get a bit of a headache, so I'm gonna stop now." She said and John's head came up from his chest and Jennifer's back straightened, but Ronon kept his head on her shoulder.

"My back hasn't felt this good in years." Jennifer said, stretching her torso with her hands pushing at her lower back.

"That knot at the base of my neck that I've had since I first got to Atlantis is gone." John said, rubbing his neck. "Is Ronon…?" he walked closer to them, tilting his head to look at the other man. "Is he actually asleep standing up?" he asked, smiling incredulously.

"Seems like." M'Rhinna said, listening to him snore softly in her ear. "He always falls asleep if I massage his neck for too long." She said, rubbing his back gently. "Come on, big fella." She turned so his arm was over her shoulders and her arms were wrapped around his waist.

"What's going on?" Ronon asked blearily, coming awake.

"You fell asleep, love. Someone needs a nap." She said as she helped him walk out of the infirmary.

"I'm not tired." He said, his words slurred.

"Yeah, yeah."

Ronon woke again briefly as she dumped him on their bed, taking off his boots and putting them in the corner, taking off hers as well. She lay down next to him and he rolled so he was on top of her, his face buried in her long dark hair.

"Are you actually going to go to sleep on me?" she asked and he nodded.

"You're comfy." He said, his voice muffled, "And you smell nice."

"Well as long as you're comfortable." She said patting his back. He slowly sank his full weight onto her and she sighed. "Yep, he's asleep." She lay for a moment in the silence with Ronon once again snoring softly in her ear. "And very heavy." M'Rhinna curled her leg around his thigh and her hand around his arm. Pushing, she flipped him onto his back and lay against his chest, her head over his heart. His arms wove around her waist in his sleep and he held her to him as if she were a stuffed animal, something to give him comfort and a sense of protection.

"My M'Rhinna." He murmured, still very much asleep. She tried to pull away so he could rest but his arms tightened. It seemed that she wasn't going anywhere.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

"Can I help you with something, Doctor Kavanagh?" M'Rhinna asked, not looking up from her tablet.

"How'd you know it was me?" he asked.

"I could smell you." She looked up at him from the tablet, seeing him standing in front of the table she was seated at in the mess hall, a half empty bottle next to her. "Now what do you want?" there was something off about his scent, which she smelled almost every day, there was a high level of adrenaline seeping out of his pores and his heart was racing.

"How's the liquid diet? Not feeling hungry are you?" he asked.

"I lived on my planets water supply for several million years before I was taken hostage by the Wraith, Doctor, I can certainly live on it now." She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. "Is there a point to all this?"

"_Filthy monster."_ Her mind picked up his errant thought easily. _"No better than the Wraith…" _the thoughts were fading in and out, like a weak signal. _"...should be put down like a dog."_

"Doctor, I suggest for your own best interest that you back away now." She said standing.

"Yeah?" he asked. "Why's that?"

"Because I don't like the tone and theme of your thoughts, that's why." She said, leaning forward so her palms were flat against the table.

"So you do read my mind! I knew it!"

"Don't flatter yourself, how could I not read your mind? You have the mental barriers of a child." She sneered and she smelled the cold metal of the gun right before he drew it, pointing it at her chest. "Bullets won't kill me, Doctor." She said, putting her hands up.

"Regular bullets won't, but these aren't regular." Time slowed as his finger started to depress the trigger. Lashing out, she grabbed the gun and yanked it out of his hand, leaping over the table and wrapping her right arm around his neck in a classic choke hold, the gun discarded on the floor. The hand of her right arm was holding onto her left arm which was bent, her left hand at the back of his head. He made several horrible choking sounds and tried to break free, his hands pulling at her arm.

"It'll do no good to struggle, Doctor." She whispered in his ear, moving with the twisting of his body so she kept a good grip on him.

"M'Rhinna!" she heard John snap and she was distracted enough so Kavanagh could pull a knife and plunge it awkwardly into her side. She gave out a cry of pain as he dug the knife around, twisting it in her insides. She felt as the knife snapped and mangled several things internally and lights danced in front of her eyes. Her arms tightened and his movements began to slow as he started to lose consciousness. Soon his body was slack and she dropped him to the floor heavily. Falling to her knees, she pressed her hands to the wound around the knife. Grasping the handle, she jerked it out and cried out again as the knife came out at a different angle that it went it. Blood flowed down her side, soaking into her clothes and making a grim pool on the floor. Her heart pounded in her ears and the only thing she could hear was that and her breathing as the world started to go dark from the outer edges of her vision inwards. She dimly saw John and Ronon run to her and she reached out a gory hand as she fell onto her back, the pool of blood spreading wider as she completely lost consciousness.

M'Rhinna drifted in and out of consciousness, her body weak. She came to long enough to look over and see Ronon by her bedside. It was like she was looking at everything through a curtain, the edges of things blurred and the background fuzzy.

"Hey." He said gently looking at her but then she slipped under again.

Sam, Teyla, and John watched from the observation deck and looked over as Jennifer joined them.

"How is she?" Sam asked.

"I keep having to up the dose of her morphine." Jennifer said. "Her body is metabolizing it too quickly for it to do anything substantial."

"I talked to some of the witnesses in the mess hall." John said. "Kavanagh approached her, she told him to back off and then he drew down on her. She was just defending herself. Neutralizing the threat."

"What was the damage?" Sam asked.

"Well I saw the knife he used on her, it was an eight inch hunting knife with an inch of serration at the hilt." John said.

"He severed her abdominal aorta, nicked her spinal cord, and sliced up a lung pretty good." Jennifer said.

"I saw him move the knife around, pulling it out partially and then pushing it back in again." John said.

"He tried his hardest to do the most amount of damage possible." Jennifer said. "If she was human, she'd be dead right now. She caught a lucky break as it is. Whatever those things are in her body weren't able to move fast enough in healing her, she lost too much blood. If she hadn't gotten to the infirmary and into surgery as quickly as she did, she'd probably be dead."

"But she is going to survive, yes?" Teyla asked, rocking David gently in her arms to keep him asleep.

"Time will tell." She said.

"All I saw was M'Rhinna choking Kavanagh," John started. "I didn't know that he had pulled a gun on her, I didn't even see a gun. If I hadn't called out to her, then she wouldn't have gotten distracted and he wouldn't have been able to…" he trailed off. "How is he? Not that I really care."

"He'll be fine, he just has a bruised larynx so he won't be able to talk for a couple weeks." Jennifer said and they all looked down at Ronon and M'Rhinna in silence.

"You should have seen his face." John said. "There was just so much blood, and I looked at Ronon and the look on his face…it was like his world was ending. Colonel Carter," he looked at her. "I suggest that you move Kavanagh back to Earth. Knowing Ronon as well as I do, he'll be gunning for him, and as much I'd love to help him with it, I don't think the I.O.A will look too well on an alien killing one of their scientists."

"John is right, Sam." Teyla said. "Ronon is likely to exact some sort of revenge on Kavanagh for attempting to kill M'Rhinna."

"The Daedelus was delayed on Earth for another week so I'll have Kavanagh sent through the gate as soon as possible." Samantha said.

"Major Lorne said that he heard Kavanagh say something about how the bullets of the gun weren't normal, or something like that. I'm having Rodney take a look at them." John said.

"Good idea." Sam said and they all looked back down just as Ronon squeezed M'Rhinna's hand and got up, storming from the room.

"Colonel, I think you should get Kavanagh through the gate right now." John suggested and she nodded, touching her radio. He ran from the observation deck to cut Ronon off and found him storming through the hallway towards crew quarters. People darted out of his way and when John caught up to him, he knew why. Ronon's jaw was clenched and his eyes were savage, pure rage and hatred on his face. "Hey buddy, where ya doing?"

"To kill Kavanagh." Ronon ground out through gritted teeth.

"That's very to the point." John said and leapt in front of him, forcing him to stop. He tried to walk around him but John kept putting himself in the way.

"Get out of my way, Sheppard." Ronon growled.

"That's not going to happen."

"Why are you defending him?" Ronon yelled and the several people around them jumped. "He almost killed M'Rhinna!"

"I know that, just take it easy. I'm not defending him, I'm making sure you don't do anything stupid." John said. "Okay, say you kill him, then what?"

"I was thinking of maybe mounting his head on my wall." Ronon said, grinning creepily.

"That's disturbing." John said. "Listen, Kavanagh will answer for what he's done."

"How do you figure? M'Rhinna isn't human; she's not from Earth so she's not covered by your Earth laws."

"He'll have to answer to the I.O.A for trying to kill M'Rhinna. They'll either kick him out of the Stargate Program or send him to some dingy, poorly lit lab in Area 51. Either way, he'll never step foot in this galaxy again."

"Oh I know he won't." Ronon said, seeming to calm down.

"That's good." John said with a sigh.

"Because I'm going to chop his legs off and beat him to death with them." Ronon said and while John was experiencing the horror of a mental image, he pushed past him and took off at a jog towards crew quarters.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

John touched his radio the moment Ronon managed to lose him.

"Rodney, it's John, you think you can pinpoint Ronon's transmitter within the city?" he asked.

"_Before he disembowels Kavanagh?"_

"Yes, Rodney!"

"_I don't know, I'll have to recalibrate the city wide life signs detector and…"_

"Don't tell me what you have to do, just do it!" John ordered.

"_John…"_ there was a pause. _"How is she?"_

"Doc says she's not out of the woods yet, but its looking up. Kavanagh did some damage."

"_When you manage to stop Ronon from killing Kavanagh, we need to talk about those bullets that he had." _Rodney said. _"Okay, I found him. He's in crew quarters atrium, heading up to the second level. That's where all the science personnel live."_

"Son of a bitch he's fast." John said and took off at a dead run, stopping briefly to get a Wraith stunner.

Kavanagh slung his bag over his shoulder and raced down the steps, flanked by security personnel.

"Kavanagh!" he heard Ronon roar and looked back, seeing him at the other end of the atrium. A small high pitched sound of fear left his throat and there was a stun blast. It hit Ronon in the back, but he didn't go down, in fact it didn't seem to have any affect on him at all.

"Ronon!" John yelled. "Stand down, that's an order!" but he didn't listen to him and vanished from the spot. The security personnel were attacked by an invisible force and Ronon reappeared in front of him, grabbing him by the front of his shirt, his top lip curling back as he hoisted him off his feet. The gums above his eye teeth split and began to bleed and Kavanagh would swear later that his teeth got a little bit longer.

"Ronon." They both looked over as M'Rhinna stepped into the atrium, still dressed in the white patient scrubs, her feet bare. Her face was pale and harsh lines of pain creased the skin around her mouth and eyes. "Let him go." He instantly let go and Kavanagh fell to the floor, his legs giving out from under him. M'Rhinna put her hand to her side and when she pulled it away, the shirt stuck to her skin, the fabric stained red. His blind rage vanished in an instant as he did and materialized in front of her, holding her face in his hands.

"What're you doing out of the infirmary?" he asked gently and held her as she sagged against him, taking in sharp breaths.

"I could feel your anger and I knew what you were going to do." She panted.

"He tried to kill you." Ronon said.

"I know, but it was his fear and ignorance of me that drove him to do it." She said as she began to shake and Ronon picked her up in his arms. "Please, just take me back to the infirmary, I'm tired."

"Okay, okay." He said kissing her forehead and the two disappeared.

Jennifer jumped when Ronon holding a very ashen looking M'Rhinna appeared in the isolation room, Ronon laying her back onto the bed.

"M'Rhinna." She scolded. "Don't you ever do that again."

"I'll try not to." M'Rhinna said with a weak smile, her voice faint as she settled back into the gurney.

"Thank you for getting her back here, Ronon." She said hooking her back up to the machines and he shrugged.

"You rest, okay?" he asked, crouching down and she nodded. "I'll be back later. I…" he seemed to rethink what he was about to say. "I'll be back later." She nodded again and he kissed her gently before standing. He and Jennifer left the isolation room as M'Rhinna closed her eyes and went to sleep.

"Okay," Rodney started. "I took a look at the bullets in Kavanagh's gun and he was right, they aren't normal." He typed a few things on the keyboard and a graph came up. "The bullets were modified slightly, but the key organic component is…and this disturbed me…naquadah."

"What?" Sam asked, surprised.

"Isn't that the same stuff that makes up the Stargate?" John asked.

"Yes, it is." Sam said. "Rodney, are you sure?"

"I'm positive, I ran the tests three times." He said.

"Wouldn't it just blow up the moment the firing pin hit it?" John asked.

"That's what I thought, but the bullet is only seventy-five percent naquadah, the other twenty-five percent is comprised of standard bullet material." He said. "I fired one off in the firing range and it fired like a regular bullet."

"How would he even get naquadah bullets?" Sam asked.

"And why would he think that it would kill M'Rhinna?" John asked.

"On a hunch, I cross referenced 'naquadah' and 'Noctins' in the database and made a discovery. Noctins are deathly allergic to naquadah! They can go near it, but they can't touch it or they'll be burned, and if it ever gets into their system…"

"Like through a gunshot wound with a naquadah bullet." John said.

"The reaction is like heavy metal poisoning only a million times faster!" Rodney said. "If he had succeeded in shooting her, she would have been dead within a matter of seconds and there's nothing we could have done. It wouldn't even have to be a fatal shot as long as the naquadah made it into her blood stream."

"This is more than attempted murder." Sam said. "Kavanagh took the time, he researched a way to kill her and he had the naquadah bullets made. This is premeditation."

"We need to find out how he got the bullets. Who made them and where. I refuse to believe that he had the time to make them himself without anyone noticing." John said.

"I'll contact the SGC and forward this information to them and I'll request that he's questioned about them as soon as he's able to talk again."

"M'Rhinna should have let Ronon kill him."


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

John and Ronon walked into the infirmary and immediately went to go see M'Rhinna who had been moved out of the isolation room. She still looked a little gray, her eyes dull, but she seemed lively enough. The news about the naquadah bullets surprised her but she moved past it quickly.

"It's a good thing he didn't have a naquadah blade." She joked but neither one of them laughed. They left her to rest and checked in on Jennifer who was concentrating intently on her tablet.

"Hey Doc." John said and she looked up at him.

"Hi, Colonel, Ronon, what can I do for you?" she asked.

"When do you think M'Rhinna will be released?" Ronon asked.

"She's free to go as soon as she's healed enough to where I know she's not in any danger of re-injuring herself." Jennifer said.

"What do you mean? M'Rhinna has Wolverine-like healing powers." John said and Ronon gave him a confused look. "X-Men." He explained.

"Yes, I know that and under other circumstances she would probably be healed completely by now, but she lost a lot of blood and I mean a lot, she's healing slower than human slow. I tried transfusions, that didn't work, she drank the blood and that didn't work, and Nocti water had no affect." Jennifer said. "I had to take the stitches out because her skin kept rejecting them but it's like her body needs something else to trigger the healing process."

"What about the blood of a Noctin?" Ronon suggested.

"That would probably do it." Jennifer said. "Unfortunately, as far as we know, she's the last one of her kind."

"She's not the last." Ronon said. "There's me. I may not be completely Noctin, but I might be enough to where my blood will heal her. If that means that I have to open a vein, I'll do it."

"She won't like that very much." Jennifer said.

"It's not up to her. If she needs it, she'll accept it." Ronon said and turned, walking back to M'Rhinna. When he reached her, he leaned over her, gently touching her face. "Rhin." He whispered and she opened her eyes. "Hey." He said smiling gently and she smiled back.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked and he helped her sit up.

"I just got done talking with Keller." He said.

"Okay."

"She said you're having some troubles healing."

"I'll be fine, it'll just take a little longer for me to heal." She said. "Really, I'll be fine."

"Rhin, you know what you need, you're just not saying it."

"Ronon…"

"You need the blood of a Noctin." He said and she sighed.

"Well if you find one, then by all means." M'Rhinna said.

"Rhin, you're not getting it on purpose. According to my DNA or whatever, I'm part Noctin."

"No." she said strongly. "And that's final." She looked around him. "John, get Ronon away from me."

"Touch me and I break something." Ronon growled. "Please forgive me." He whispered to her and stood, pulling a small, wide blade from his belt and running it across the inside of his wrist with a grunt.

"Ronon." Her tone was warning. Blood welled and ran down his arm, falling in droplets onto the sheets. "Don't do this." He moved closer to her and she tried to push him away, but in her weakened state he was able to overpower her, pinning her arms to her chest with one arm as he moved behind her, sitting down on the bed and pressing his bleeding wrist to her mouth. She kept her lips clamped together and moved her head away, closing her eyes tightly.

"Please, 'Rhin." He whispered, laying his forehead against the back of her head. "It won't do any good to fight it until it's healed, I'll just reopen it. Please, M'Rhinna." He pressed his lips to the back of her neck and felt her lips against his wrist, the skin slick with his blood. He felt as her lips parted and her tongue lapped at the wound. There was a sharp intense pain as her fangs dug in and he grunted. Without her making it pleasurable, it _hurt_, like he was being burned_._ She began to pull at the wounds, taking in deep mouthfuls of his blood and swallowing. Just as lights began to dance in front of his eyes, she pulled away with a gasp and the wounds healed leaving unmarred skin save for two dots of scar tissue that were very pale against his tan skin. His arms fell away and he leaned against her back, suddenly very tired.

"Ronon?" she asked as the wound in her side knitted closed, the injured organs tingling as they also healed. He was very quiet behind her, his warm breath fanning over her back. "Love?" she twisted and looked at him, cupping his face in her hands and making him look at her. His eyes were half lidded and dull and his movements were sluggish and shaky as his hands went to her waist, one of them sliding under the shirt to touch her side only to feel smooth skin.

"It…worked." He said and she nodded.

"Yeah, it worked." She said nodding and smiling and he smiled back, leaning forward to lay his head on her shoulder.

"Is he going to be okay?" John asked. She had actually forgotten that he was there.

"He'll be fine." She said, rubbing Ronon's back, "He just needs some rest."

"He's not…"

"No, he's nowhere near that point, if he was he'd be on the floor barely conscious. Right now, he's just a little loopy." She said as Ronon started to doze on her shoulder. "Him falling asleep on me is starting to become a habit."

"You need help getting him back to his room?" John asked as M'Rhinna stood from the bed, almost completely supporting Ronon in her arms.

"No, I've got it covered, but thank you."

Once again, Ronon woke briefly when M'Rhinna dumped him on their bed and took off his boots.

"This is starting to become a habit." He mumbled almost incoherently.

"Yeah, I know." M'Rhinna said.

"You coming to bed?" he asked, taking off his leather vest and undoing the first couple buttons of his pants to get comfortable.

"Nah, I've been cooped up in the infirmary for a few days, I think I'm going to go for a run around the city." She said as she got changed into her workout clothes, strapping a pair of sneaker-like shoes on her feet. M'Rhinna pulled her hair back into a sloppy bun and secured it with an elastic band before heading for the door, stopping only briefly to lay a kiss on Ronon's chest before almost bouncing out the door. Ronon watched her go with a fond smile before getting comfortable on the bed, closing his eyes and going to sleep.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The door slid closed behind her and she kicked off her shoes. The thin wisps of hair that usually curled around her head were plastered to her skin with sweat and overall she just felt gross. M'Rhinna had run half of the city at full tilt before heading back to her and Ronon's room. Looking around the room, her excellent night vision allowing her to see in the pure dark, she realized that it was going to be a bit before she would be showering. She snorted and shook her head as she saw him laying face down on the bed, the sheet just barely covering his lower half. M'Rhinna picked up his pants, underwear, and vest from the floor and tossed the skivvies in the laundry bag before folding the vest and the pants, setting them in a neat pile on the low dresser. He seemed to have a problem with keeping the floor of his room cleared of clothes. His holster belt complete with pistol and knives hung from a piece of Athosian art that Teyla said she had given him some time ago when they celebrated the Earth holiday of "Christmas". Apparently it was customary to give and receive gifts so she had given him a piece of wall art made of the long thick antlers of a game animal that the Athosians' often hunted. M'Rhinna took the belt off the piece and hung it up in its usual place on a hook by Ronon's side of the bed.

She found various knives scattered around the room (some in their sheaths some not) on pretty much every flat surface and she found homes for the ones that were bare; the thin ones going into hidden sheaths in the leather gauntlets that were lying on the bit of column that he had taken from Sateda. When the room was as straightened away as it was going to get she went into the bathroom to shower but stopped in the doorway and sighed. It wasn't horrible, but Ronon's long blade was lying in its holder across the back of the toilet and the gun that she had given him was lying on the sink, the shoulder holster complete with a sheath for a Noctin sword (his sword was too wide and needed it's own sheath while a Noctin sword tended to be thinner with a gentle curve to the blade) was hanging over the towel bar, the sheath carrying its blade down the back. She slid the gun into the holster and secured it and grabbed his sword, going back into the bedroom to lay them down on the dresser. Finally, she could get clean.

After her shower, she towel dried her hair and put it up in a bun before she dressed in her soft dark pajamas, crawling into bed and laying on her side with her back to Ronon, going to sleep.

_M'Rhinna knew instantly that something wasn't right. She in a dream, yes, but it wasn't _her_ dream. She hasn't been in a dream of Ronon's since before she came to Atlantis, since then he's been invading her dreams. Right now she was standing in the hallway outside their room, dressed in white hospital scrubs and when she put her hand to her side she felt the tacky warmth of blood. There wasn't any pain, there usually never is in dreams, but the fact that it was there worried her. She looked up from the gaping wound in her side as John ran past._

"_John!" she called out to him, but he didn't seem to hear her and kept running, disappearing around the corner. She followed and he led her to crew quarters atrium where Ronon was holding Kavanagh up by his shirt, his top lip curled back. She watched as his gums split and his eye teeth lengthened into daggers. "Ronon!" she cried out but it was too late. Ronon pulled Kavanagh to him and Kavanagh gave out a strangled cry as he sunk his fangs into his neck. He began to worry at his throat like a dog with a piece of meat, shaking his head back and forth in jerking movements, causing the most damage possible. Kavanagh soon went limp and Ronon dropped him to the ground, no blood came out of the horrible neck wound, Ronon had drained him completely dry. His head suddenly whipped around and he looked at her, his teeth shrinking back to normal._

_Her injury flared to life and blood poured in a thick steady stream down her side. Ronon moved to her but she was dead before she hit the floor._

M'Rhinna came awake with a gasp, her chest burning as if she had been holding her breath. She sat up in bed and coughed great hacking coughs as air rushed back into her lungs. Ronon was already awake, sitting up in bed with his knees hugged to his chest.

"You weren't breathing." He said. "And you were cold."

"I think we have to talk." M'Rhinna said, her voice hoarse and looked at him. There was a ring of blood around the inner edge of his lips and at her prompting, he pulled back his top lip, showing her deep cracks in the gums above his eye teeth that had already started to heal. "We really need to talk."

The next morning, almost everyone noticed a dramatic shift between Ronon and M'Rhinna. They weren't sitting together in the mess hall, they barely looked at each other and whenever someone brought up the other, they changed the subject.

"We should split up, take them separately." John suggested to Teyla after several days of this when they entered the mess and saw M'Rhinna sitting at one end of the room and Ronon at the other, their backs to each other. "You take M'Rhinna, I got Ronon."

"Hello, M'Rhinna." M'Rhinna looked up from the tablet at the smiling face of Teyla, David in her arms. "May I sit?"

"Go right ahead." She said, waving her hand at the chair opposite from her.

"So, what's up buddy?" John asked as he sat down across from Ronon.

"What do you mean?" Ronon asked, leaning back in his chair, his mug in his hands.

"Usually you and M'Rhinna are attached at the hip. What's with the distance?" he asked.

"Ronon and I aren't going to be spending much time together anymore." M'Rhinna said.

"Why not?" Teyla asked.

"What do you mean, you and M'Rhinna broke up?" John asked, surprised.

"I don't want to talk about it." Ronon said.

"He had a feeding dream, Teyla." M'Rhinna said.

"I don't understand." Teyla said.

"Noctin children right before their first Quickening have feeding dreams." She said and Teyla made a noise of understand, nodding.

"And you're worried that you might be slowly turning him." Teyla said.

"I told her that she didn't have to worry about it." Ronon said. "But she wouldn't listen."

"That doesn't mean that you had to split." John said. "You two are great for each other."

"How do you figure?" M'Rhinna asked.

"You and Ronon have this bond."

"That 'bond' is little creatures swimming around my blood. You saw them!" Ronon said and John nodded. "She over thinks everything…"

"He never thinks before he acts…"

"I can't understand a word she's saying when she starts speaking science…"

"It's hard that I can't talk to him about what I did in the lab that day, he gets this empty look in his eyes…"

"I sometimes get the feeling that she's looking down at me…"

"He's just so incredibly young…!"

"She doesn't talk about her time on the Hive ship…"

"He closes up when I try to bring up his experiences as a Runner…"

"I have to know that I can trust her…"

"And I just don't think I can trust him, Teyla." M'Rhinna said. "It hurts when I'm not around him."

"I can't think straight when she's not here."

"I miss him so much."

"She moved out of my room and it just feels…empty."

"I feel like crying all the time."

"It feels like my chest is caving in."

"No matter how much he annoys me…"

"Even though she's so aggravating sometimes…"

"I love him."

"I love her and I want to spend the rest of eternity with her."

"But I won't turn him, I won't steal his humanity away from him like that."

"But I know that she would rather watch me die of old age than turn me."

"So it's best if we're not together."

"So now she's going to try to protect me from her." Ronon finished gave out a huge sigh. "It felt good to get all of that out."

"Thank you for listening Teyla, I really needed that." M'Rhinna said and reached across the table, smoothing a soft lock of dark hair away from David's face. "I know little one, and thank you."

"What did he say?" Teyla asked.

"He said that he's here if I ever need to talk." She said with a small smile and stood. "Rodney is expecting me."

Ronon stood from his chair, grabbing his tray.

"I've got a sparring match with Lorne." He said and the two couldn't help but notice Ronon and M'Rhinna avoid each other as they crossed the mess hall, each going their separate ways.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37

M'Rhinna curled up on her small hard bed, wishing she was surrounded by Ronon's fur blankets that were covered with his scent and warmth. When she finally fell asleep, it was fitful and uneasy.

_M'Rhinna sighed as she looked around the gym._

"_What're you doing in my dream?" she looked over seeing Ronon dressed in his workout clothes in the doorway._

"_I'm not here on purpose." she said and went to move around him to leave, but he grabbed her arm, pushing her back into the room. "What do you think you're doing?"_

"_I want to know why you're here. We're broken up, M'Rhinna! You can't just go invading my dreams!"_

"_I told you, I didn't mean to come here. I don't know why I'm here, for all we know this is my dream and you're doing the invading."_

"_Right, you dream about me working out." Ronon said crossing his arms over his chest._

"_How was I supposed to know that that's what you dream about? I don't invade your dreams anymore, Ronon! Not intentionally."_

"_You should have just left me alone."_

"_Well I'm sorry I'm such a hindrance, I'll leave."_

"_You might as well leave the city; no one wants you here anyway."_

"_Screw you!"_

"_You first!" Looking back on it, neither one of them would know who threw the first punch but they were soon beating the crap out of each other, the room spinning around them as they moved too fast for the eye to see. When they finally broke away, M'Rhinna had a cut above her eye and the corner of Ronon's mouth was bleeding, a cut high up on his cheekbone. She wiped the blood off her face with the back of her hand and Ronon suddenly dropped his stance. He advanced on her quickly and grabbed the back of her head with both hands, kissing her almost brutally, her lips mashing against her teeth._

_Air left her lungs as her back hit the wall and she tore at his shirt with her hands, pulling it off his body. Ronon hissed as she dug runnels into his back with her nails, the wounds healing before they ever had the chance to bleed. He gripped her hips in his hands with a bruising force and she wrapped her legs around his waist, his hands going to work on the drawstring of her capri sweatpants. At the taste of his blood in her mouth, her eye teeth lengthened and as if that was the trigger, his did also. Her eyes widening, she dropped her legs to the floor and pushed him away with all the strength she could muster. He jumped off of her, hitting the floor on his back and she ran for the door but was stopped when he reached out, wrapping his fingers around her ankle. She tried to pull free but he yanked her leg out from under her. She hit the floor and rolled to distribute the force and he was on her in a second, one hand around wrists to keep her arms above her head, the other gently pushing her head to the side, baring her throat._

"_Ronon…"she warned and hissed as he ran his tongue over the heavy pulse under her skin, causing the pulse to jump. M'Rhinna cried out as he sank his teeth into her neck but then the pain faded as he made the bite pleasurable. He pulled away from her neck and kissed her, parting her lips with his tongue and delving into her mouth, letting her taste her own blood. M'Rhinna cried out against his lips for a different reason as his hand slid under the waistband of her sweatpants._

She came awake with a gasp, sitting up in bed, her skin coated with sweat and her neck throbbing. She put a hand to her neck but found no puncture wounds. She looked over as there was a pounding on her door and got out of bed, waving her hand over the sensor. The door slid back and she looked at Ronon standing on the other side. He wasted no time, rushing at her like he did in the dream, the door sliding closed behind him.

M'Rhinna woke again at the loud thumping noise and the curse words and peered over the side of the bed, seeing Ronon on the floor, still partially wrapped in the pale blue sheet. Bright sunlight filtered in through the windows telling her it was morning.

"Did you actually roll out of bed?" she asked, running her fingers through her hair.

"Quit laughing that hurt." He said getting off the floor and joining her back on the bed. "Your bed is too small."

"You're just too big." She said, laying with her back to him, her head pillowed on his arm. After untangling the sheet, he covered the both of them with it and held it in his fist to her chest, keeping her close to him.

"No such thing as too big, baby." He said and she snorted, snuggling into the warmth of his body, her eyes closing. The door beeped and they didn't have time to do much of anything before it slid open.

"Out, McKay!" they barked in unison.

"Jesus Christ, I'm blind!" he yelled as the door slid closed, leaving him out in the hall.

"For the last time, Rodney," Jennifer said as they entered the mess hall, going to their usual table. "You're not blind."

"It's not like he saw anything." Ronon said as they sat down. John was in the center with Ronon and M'Rhinna on either side.

"We were completely covered." M'Rhinna said.

"So," John started. "I guess that means you two are back together."

"That's what it means." Ronon said, taking a bite of scrambled eggs.

"How did that happen?" John asked.

"Well we shared a rather interesting dream last night that was cut short and then he came to my room to pick up where it left off." M'Rhinna said with a smile.

"And then she was late coming to the lab this morning so I tried her on the radio and received no answer so I went to check on her and there they were…in bed…naked." Rodney said.

"We were covered!" M'Rhinna said.

"Although, what little I saw, I noticed that M'Rhinna has a really nice form and…"

"You will stop right there." M'Rhinna said.

"Yes, you will." Ronon said turning his gaze fully on him and Rodney made a small scared sound deep in his throat, falling quiet.

"So," M'Rhinna said, switching topics. "Where's Teyla?"

"The mainland." John said, "Kanaan wanted to see David."

"Kanaan is David's bio-dad right?" M'Rhinna asked and John nodded. "Don't worry John." she said, petting the top of his head. He batted her hand away and she smiled. "Teyla loves you and considers you David's father. No matter what genetic claim Kanaan has on him, you are his father. David certainly thinks of you as his father, even though he knows that he is not genetically yours."

"Really?" John asked.

"Really." M'Rhinna said.

"So," Ronon started. "Do you think you and Teyla would ever you know…have more?"

"Yes, will David be getting any little siblings?" M'Rhinna asked and John turned an adorable shade of pink.

"We have talked about it and we agreed that when David is three and we still want to, we'll start talking about giving David some brothers or sisters." He said.

"Awww." M'Rhinna laid her head on John's shoulder and he smiled, looking down at her. Ronon reached around and put a hand between them, pushing her off of John's shoulder. They were all laughing at this when an explosion rocked the city.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Chaos suddenly broke out as every one with a radio tried to figure out what was happening.

"I have to get to the infirmary." Jennifer said and took off at a run out of the mess hall.

"Control room?" M'Rhinna asked.

"Control room." John said and she reached across the table, simultaneously grabbing Rodney's and John's hand. They disappeared from the mess hall and reappeared in a frantic control room.

"Thanks." John said as she released them.

"Don't mention it." She said.

"Rodney, I need to know what the hell just happened!" John said and Rodney went to a control panel.

"The city received direct blasts to the shield generator and the drone bay doors." He said.

"What the hell is going on?" Sam asked, entering the control room.

"We were attacked." John said.

"By who?" she asked.

"Colonel Carter, we're receiving audio and visual." Chuck said.

"Put it up on the screen." She said and he did.

"_Atlantis, it would be in your best interest to respond."_

"Michael." John said and M'Rhinna and Ronon growled at the sight of the Wraith-hybrid on screen.

"Open a channel." Sam said and he did. "This is Colonel Carter of Atlantis. State your business, Michael."

"_So good of you to reply. I can see Colonel Sheppard, Doctor McKay, Ronon Dex and oh my…a Noctin."_ Michael said and M'Rhinna's fangs dropped. _"But where are Teyla and her baby?"_

"Safe." John said through gritted teeth. "What do you want?"

"_My request is simple. Give me the baby and I will spare your city. You may also be wondering why you are not picking my Hive up on any of your equipment. You can thank the shielding generator of the Puddle Jumper I took for that."_

"You're not taking my son." John said.

"_Your son? Did I get the fraternal blood line wrong? Oh, you mean the son of your heart. How…touching." _He said with a sneer. _"Give me the boy, and you all live."_

"He's lying." Ronon said.

"He does that." Rodney said.

Unseen by all of them, M'Rhinna closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, reaching out with her mind to David on the mainland. They instantly connected and she opened her eyes.

On the mainland Teyla stopped mid-sentence with a gasp, getting an image in her mind of the control room, Michael's face up on the screen. She looked down at David in her arms who was gazing up at her with M'Rhinna's startling blue eyes.

"Major Lorne!" she called out, leaving the tent and Kanaan behind.

"Teyla!" he called after her but she ignored him.

"Evan!" she called out again and the Major looked up from a piece of Athosian art. "One of Michael's Hives is shielded in orbit, we have to get into the jumper and cloak it now!"

"What? How do you know?"

"No time!"

Once M'Rhinna knew that Teyla was safe in a cloaked Jumper, she broke the connection and began to work on tracing the signal back to the neural interface of the Hive ship to reveal its position, in doing so, she made an important discovery.

"He isn't even on the Hive." She said aloud and they looked at her. "He's using it as a relay station; the signal is coming from thousands of light years away."

"_The Noctin is quite correct."_ Michael said. _"I am not aboard the Hive targeting the central tower."_

"Just like a Wraith…a coward." M'Rhinna said.

"_Just like a Noctin…getting into others affairs."_ He said and she growled again. _"How civilized."_

"So, why send a Hive to do your dirty work?" Ronon asked.

"_As always, the Satedan fails to see the simple answer."_ Michael said.

"If we manage to destroy the Hive it'll save the city, but he won't be killed because he's not on it." M'Rhinna said. "So he'll be free to send another Hive."

"Son of a bitch." Ronon said.

"Exactly." She said.

"_Tell me something, Colonel Sheppard. You would kill me on sight, but you allow a bigger monster to charm its way into the city. How is that possible?"_

"She asked politely." John said and M'Rhinna gave Michael a sassy smile.

"_Ronon." _She thought, connecting to his mind. He looked at her, but didn't say a word.

"_Yeah?"_

"_I need your help with something. I haven't done it in a while and might need some support."_

"_Whatever you need."_ He thought and she grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers with his.

"_Interesting, the beast bedding down with the animal."_ Michael said but they ignored the dig. M'Rhinna closed her eyes and concentrated.

Static electricity began to rise in the control room, hair started to stand up on end and mini arcs of electricity passed between people. The equipment began to malfunction, the video feed breaking up into static. A small blue ball of energy began to grow in the control room, the lights in the room flickering and some even went out altogether, casting them into a light gloom. It grew to the size of a bowling ball as tinted sweat began to bead on her forehead. Opening her eyes she reached out and touched it, tapping it lightly with a fingertip. It shot out of the room; moving through a pane of glass and making it bow outwards.

"The Hive ship just showed up on our scanners." Chuck said. "And now it's gone. The video feed has gone dead as well."

"That's because it was destroyed." M'Rhinna said languidly.

"What was that thing?" Sam asked.

"Collective telekinetic energy used as a weapon. I didn't just move something; I gathered the energy in one spot and used that to destroy the Hive. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to lay down for a bit." Without a word, Ronon helped her as she staggered and stumbled from the control room, obviously exhausted. "You can contact Teyla now and tell her it's safe." She called behind her as she left.


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39

"Wake up." M'Rhinna stirred and groaned, burrowing deeper into his blankets. "Come on, sleepy head, time to get up. You've been sleeping for over a day."

"Bite me." She mumbled, refusing to open her eyes.

"I'm not allowed to do that anymore." Ronon said.

"Here's a better idea. Why don't you join me? I'm cold." She said and the blanket flung back. M'Rhinna opened her eyes enough to see Ronon as he climbed into bed, pulling the blanket back over the both of them.

"You are cold." He said as he took her into his arms. "You're freezing." He began to rub her back, trying to warm her up. A dark cloud began to sweep across her mind and her heart started to race.

"_No, no, no, no. Not now, not like this."_ She thought to herself. Her eye teeth lengthened and she breathed in deep, taking in Ronon's scent hoping it would ground her. That only fueled the fire and she felt that darkness start to creep through her body. She fought it with every bit of her until she gained control again, forcing it back into its cage, almost hearing its snarls of rage. Slowly her body warmed, her tense muscles relaxed and she eased herself fully into his arms.

John sat on the window ledge with David in his arms and Ronon stood leaning against the wall as M'Rhinna and Teyla started to spar. They moved in slow sweeping movements at first, the bantos rods barely touching before they exploded into furious action. M'Rhinna moved gracefully on her toes while Teyla mostly stayed grounded, keeping her center of balance stable by planting her feet shoulder width apart and moving with her torso rather than her whole body like M'Rhinna did.

Her movements sped up and she started to blur in the air, Teyla barely able to keep up. Her bantos rods suddenly flew out of her hands and M'Rhinna steadied with the end of one rod centimeters from Teyla's face. She twirled it back against her arm and turned, walking away.

"You must be M'Rhinna Trin." They all looked over and saw the man standing in the doorway. He was dressed neatly in a suit, glasses on his nose and a bald spot on his head.

"Mr. Woolsey." John said. "What brings you at Atlantis?" he asked and he looked at him.

"I.O.A business, of course." He said.

"M'Rhinna," Teyla started, "This is Mr. Woolsey of the I.O.A. They over see everything that goes on in the city."

"So you all don't just do whatever you want to? Because it kind of seems that way." She said and Teyla smiled, looping her arm in hers. "So what kind of I.O.A business brings you to me?"

"How did you know I was here to see you?" Woolsey asked.

"I was right?" she actually seemed surprised. "My telepathy has been on the fritz lately, I could barely get a message through to Ronon this morning."

"I thought I heard a buzzing sound, it was like a bad radio reception." He said.

"That was me. You're telling me that you didn't get anything?"

"No, I didn't get one word." Ronon said and her brow furrowed.

"That's not right, my telepathy is so strong." She said.

"M'Rhinna, what's going on?" Teyla asked.

"I don't know." She said. "Anyway, let's just get this over with. It's about my altercation with Kavanagh, isn't it?"

"Yes it is." Woolsey said. "Why don't we go somewhere we can talk more privately?"

"Okay." She said and they left the gym, Teyla, Ronon and John following.

"Ms. Trin," Woolsey started after they sat down at either side of a conference table, a running digital recorder in the middle between them. "How old are you approximately?"

"I am ten million, one hundred seventy thousand, three hundred and eighty-five years old." She said plainly with a pleasant smile on her face and there was a shocked silence.

"You look good for your age." Woolsey said at last making a note on his notepad and she chuckled.

"Thank you." She said.

"How long were you held prisoner on a Wraith Hive ship?"

"They tell me ten thousand years or more. Day and night have no relevance on a Hive so there was no way for me to keep track."

"They?"

"Colonel Carter, Teyla, John, Rodney and Jennifer, Ronon has been kind enough not to keep reminding me how long I was at the mercy of the Wraith." M'Rhinna said.

"For the record, by those names, you mean Colonel Samantha Carter, United States Air Force, Teyla Emmagen of Athos, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard of the Unites States Air Force, Dr. Rodney McKay PhD, Dr. Jennifer Keller MD, and Ronon Dex of Sateda."

"Yes, I do, for the record."

"What were some of the things that took place on board the Hive?"

"The Queen interrogated me what seemed like every day and they…experimented on me." She said.

"Explain that please. Experimented how?"

"Perhaps 'experiment' isn't the right word. It was more like a…dissection." Woolsey looked up from his note pad at this, giving her a horrified look.

"They _dissected _you?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Were you unconscious during this?"

"No. They stunned me beforehand but a Wraith stun device does not have the same effect on my kind that it does on humans."

"Explain that please."

"Humans are rendered unconscious. My people become paralyzed, we can feel, see, hear and are aware, but we are rendered completely immobile." M'Rhinna said very matter-of-fact. "Can I ask how this relates to what happened between Kavanagh and myself?"

"Extenuating circumstances."

"I may not be from Earth, but I do know the meaning of your words. There is nothing justifiable about what he did. Just because I was held prisoner aboard a Hive ship for ten thousand years and was forced to drink human blood to sustain myself, does not mean that his actions are excusable or diminished by that fact. Prior to the event, I had not harmed him nor bothered him in any way. I never threatened him and I certainly never gave him the impression that I was going to inflict bodily harm on him or anyone on this base. In fact, I tried to act pleasant around him, like I do every one else on this base, but his attitude towards me prevented me from doing that with any modicum of success."

"Are you always this moody?" Woolsey asked, leaning back in his chair slightly.

"No, I'm not, usually I'm more level headed, and by the gods why am I craving human food?" She suddenly calmed, sitting back in the chair with a small smile on her face that quick grew.

"What?" Woolsey asked.

"Telepathy and telekinesis on the fritz, mood swings, and craving human food, I know what wrong with me."

"What? Should you get down to the infirmary?" he asked but she shook her head, giving out a small laugh.

"No, it's nothing like that. I'm not sick." She said. "I'm pregnant."


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40

The wall sections opened and Ronon ran into the room, a large smile on his face. M'Rhinna stood the moment she saw him and he picked her up in a hug, spinning her around in a circle.

"Pregnant?" he asked, setting her down on her feet and she nodded. If possible, his smile grew even larger and he gave out a joyous laugh, dropping to his knees and laying rapid kisses on her stomach.

"It was Colonel Carter's report about you that said humans weren't genetically compatible with you." Woolsey said. "How are you pregnant?"

"Ronon isn't entirely human anymore." M'Rhinna explained, looking at him. "Ever since my blood began to introduce into his system, he's been part Noctin. Apparently that part was enough." She said and Ronon stood. "How did you know? How did you hear me?"

"We were listening in from the surveillance room. I tried to do that shift thing, but wasn't able to."

"You were too agitated; you have to be calm to do an area shift." M'Rhinna explained kindly as he kept his arms around her, her hands against his chest so she could look up at his face.

"I'm going to be a father." He said.

"You're going to be a father."

"Can you tell if it's a boy or girl? I'd heard you can communicate with children in the womb." Woolsey asked but she shook her head.

"Until the baby or babies are born I'll be almost human. I'll have to eat human food sustain me and I'll have limited or no enhanced physical and mental abilities." She said. "But on the other side of the coin, my healing abilities will advance dramatically to make sure the baby isn't harmed and I carry to term."

"I can actually protect you now." Ronon said and she smiled.

"You can try."

"Oh no babe, you're not leaving my sight until our baby is born." He said and she smiled wider, going up on her tiptoes so she could kiss him.

"Mr. Woolsey," she started, not looking at him. "Can we finish this some other time? Or do you need to take my statement in person?"

"We can finish another time. I suppose you want to celebrate the good news." He excused himself from the room and they paid no attention to him.

"I know you already knew this," Jennifer started after doing the blood work. "But you're pregnant, about three weeks."

"Three weeks? I must have gotten pregnant before I was stabbed." She said as she was sitting on the exam table. "I was lucky I didn't lose the baby."

"I still want to kill Kavanagh for what he did to you." Ronon said and she patted his hand that was on her knee.

"Well at least now David will have someone to play with who is close to his own age." Teyla said and she smiled.

"I never even thought of that." She said and she and Teyla shared a smile.

"Well I think you can safely say you are the oldest pregnant woman ever." John said and M'Rhinna laughed.

"By several million years." She said.

"M'Rhinna," Jennifer said and she looked at her. "Walk me through a Noctin pregnancy, I want to know what to expect."

"For the most part, a Noctin pregnancy is very much like a human pregnancy." M'Rhinna began. "But the closer I am to giving birth, the more…territorial I will become. The only person I will allow around me is the father; everyone else no matter who they are, will be perceived as a threat and will be treated as such. In fact, when a Noctin woman goes into labor, they have to be sedated so they don't try to kill the doctors delivering the baby. We are extremely protective of our young."

"Mama Bear Syndrome on steroids." John said.

"I have no idea what that means, but okay." M'Rhinna said.

"Just how territorial will you become?" Teyla asked.

"The closer I am to giving birth?" Teyla nodded. "Let's just say that fangs will be bared. Up until that point I'll be irritable, extremely paranoid and cautious of the people around me, and there will be a lot of growling." She said. "But not around Ronon, to him I will be extremely affectionate and the closer I am to giving birth the more I will have to be around him and I will look to him as a source of comfort and protection, but mess with me and my baby and I will tear your throat out with my teeth." She paused, thinking over what she just said. "That was a little creepy, sorry." M'Rhinna then looked at Ronon who was hovering by her side. "Hold me." She said wrapping her arms around him and he held her, laying his cheek on top of her head.

"And so it begins." John said. "This ought to be a fun nine months."

"Six months." M'Rhinna said.

"What?"

"The Noctin gestation period is six months." She said.

"M'Rhinna, how do you feel about bed rest?" Jennifer asked.

"Not an option."

"Well as your doctor, I'm telling you that for a couple of days at least you are confined to bed rest, it'll ease everyone's nerves." Jennifer said and M'Rhinna leveled a look at her before nodding.

"Okay, but only for a couple days." She said and without a word Ronon picked her up in his arms. "I can walk you know!"

"Not going to let you." He said and carried her out of the infirmary, her objections trailing behind them.


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41

"Do you want or need anything?" Ronon asked as he tucked M'Rhinna into bed after she got changed into her pajamas.

"Food." She said.

"What kind?"

"Surprise me." She said and he nodded, leaving the room. M'Rhinna settled into the pillows with a sigh and laid there for several moments, shifting every now and then before she got up and walked to the foot of the bed. Rising to her tiptoes, she fell forward, catching herself on her hands and started to do rapid pushups.

"What're you doing?" she looked up mid pushup at Ronon at the door, a tray of food in his hands.

"Exercise, I was restless." She said and hopped to her feet.

"You're also pregnant, get back to bed." He sounded annoyed.

"I'm not going to hurt the baby doing pushups, Ronon."

"You don't know that."

"Actually yes, I do. Expert in all things Noctin, remember?"

"Just please, M'Rhinna, get back into bed."

"Fine." M'Rhinna said with a sigh and got back into bed, sitting cross legged. "What did you bring me?"

"A little bit of everything." Ronon said with a small smile as he brought it over to her, carefully laying it in front of her on the bed.

"Wow, this is a little bit of everything." She said, looking at the mountain of food. "I'm going to need help with this."

"I have no problem with that." He snagged a grape off the tray and popped it into his mouth as he lay across the bed close to her on his side. "Have you ever heard of a Noctin and a part-Noctin having children?"

"There weren't many part-Noctins around. When a Noctin took a human for a mate, they always just turned them before the Eternal Ceremony."

"Eternal Ceremony?"

"Like a wedding ceremony, only longer lasting."

"A wedding ceremony is forever."

"There are things involved with the Eternal Ceremony, once done it can't be undone. I couldn't explain it to you, I never went through it and the process is a sacred and closely guarded secret."

"You never went through it? You were married to Krell."

"Yes, well, he and I had a traditional marriage ceremony." M'Rhinna said, digging into her pasta. "You can't choose to do the Eternal Ceremony, it chooses you. It just didn't choose us." The way she said it let him know that she didn't want to talk about it anymore so he pushed on past it.

"Need any more help?" he asked, eyeing the tray and she laughed.

"Help yourself."

"If I did that I'd empty it and I'm not the one eating for two."

"At least help me with the bigger pieces." She said and he picked up a strip of beef, putting it in his mouth quickly so it wouldn't drip on the blankets and licked his fingers clean. "You can go get a fork, you know."

"I know." He said with a smile as he took another piece of meat off the tray.

"Barbarian." M'Rhinna said a small smile and he continued to smirk at her.

"You're the one having my baby." He said.

"That's right! I am!" she said and he reached over the tray, cupping her cheek in his palm.

"We are going to have one beautiful baby."

"Yes, we are." She said, laying her hand over his.

"Enough talking, you eat then rest. Okay?"

"Yes, sir." She said smiling mischievously and he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I was just thinking of something else we could do."

"No, I don't want to hurt the baby."

"Sweetie, I adore your physical dimensions, but you will not get even _remotely_ close to the baby." M'Rhinna said.

"Really?" He asked and she nodded.

"Really, trust me on this." She said and he got off the bed, taking the tray and setting it on the dresser before kicking off his boots. M'Rhinna grinned in anticipation, capturing her lower lip gently with her teeth as he crawled onto the bed. The way he moved reminded her of a large predatory cat and a small giggle escaped her mouth right before their lips met feverishly, her fingers working on the metal buttons of his leather vest and her hands slipping inside to touch his chest.

Much, much later Ronon and M'Rhinna lay in a tangle of sheets and limbs, M'Rhinna laying in his arms on his chest, his hand stroking her sweat slick back.

"Are you sure that didn't hurt the baby?" he asked and she sighed.

"Ronon, you didn't hurt the baby. Now go to sleep." She said, closing her eyes.

"Your food is cold."

"I'll live, now sleep."

"Are you _absolutely_ sure I didn't hurt the baby?"

"Sleep, Ronon!"

He sighed, "Fine."


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42

The news of her pregnancy ran through the base like wildfire and the next morning she couldn't walk 10 paces down the hall without someone congratulating her and Ronon. She took it all in stride, even when she was spoken to by people she didn't know, and made it to the mess hall without getting annoyed.

Teyla, Jennifer and Rodney were already there at their usual table, Ronon had woken up early that morning so he could get to the gym to spar with John.

"How're you feeling?" Jennifer asked as M'Rhinna sat down with her tray of blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs, a glass of apple juice in her hand.

"Hungry." She said, digging into the eggs. "I ate the entire tray of food that Ronon had brought me last night before I came here this morning, but I still feel ravenous."

"Is that normal?" Jennifer asked.

M'Rhinna nodded, "Yes, it is."

"Do Noctins get Morning Sickness?" she asked.

"Morning Sickness?"

"They call it Morning Sickness," Teyla started. "But the illness lasts all day every day for the first couple months of the pregnancy."

"No, Noctins don't go through anything like that." M'Rhinna said, pushing the edge of her fork through the stack of pancakes. "It sounds unpleasant so I'm glad we don't."

"It is quite unpleasant. The persistent nausea, not to mention the constant vomiting…"

"I'm trying to eat, here!" Rodney complained.

"I never liked throwing up, so I'm even happier that I don't have to go through it." M'Rhinna said as she ate her pancakes.

"How's Ronon?" Teyla asked.

"Deliriously happy, although he doesn't show it. He kept kissing my stomach this morning and saying nonsense words to it. I told him that the baby is just a bunch of cells right now and can't hear him, but he doesn't listen." M'Rhinna said with a small smile.

"Have you two talked about names?" Jennifer asked.

"No, but I have thought about it. If it were a girl I would like to name her M'Rhonna, it was my mothers' name."

"That's very pretty." Teyla said, "And if it were a boy?"

"Dolsan." M'Rhinna said.

"Your fathers name?" Jennifer asked but M'Rhinna shook her head.

"I never knew my father, my mother and her family raised me. No, Dolsan is my great-great-great-great-grandfathers' name, he taught me how to use a sword, shoot, and ride dirkas."

"Dirkas?" Rodney asked.

"A dirka is kind of like a horse, only with long curling antlers and coven hooves." Teyla explained. "They run wild throughout the galaxy but I've never heard of any people domesticating them."

"My people have an affinity for animals, they like us." M'Rhinna said, taking a sip of her apple juice. "Dirkas adapt to their surroundings extremely well and Grandfather Dolsan had a herd of at least a thousand head of them on Nocti. I had a stallion growing up, oddly enough named Ronin, only spelled with an 'I' instead of a second 'O'. He was a wild beast, headstrong and stubborn, but he was mine and I loved him the moment I saw him. I remember him so vividly. He had blue eyes, which is odd considering that dirkas only have yellow or brown eyes. His coat was dark and thick, but soft to the touch like baby's hair and he loved to be rubbed where the antlers meet the skull, nothing else calmed him as much as that did. He died shortly after I stopped aging, and it's odd, every one of his children had those same piercing blue eyes." Her voice trailed off as she became lost in thought. "Sorry," she said coming back to the present. "Sometimes I get lost in memories."

"I'm not surprised," Jennifer started. "Given how long you've been alive. I'm also not surprised that you're completely disregarding my order of bed rest."

"I spent most of yesterday in bed! I thought I was going crazy not being able to work." M'Rhinna said and Jennifer just gave out a sound in response. "I really should get back to my lab."

"How's that coming, by the way?" Rodney asked.

"I've isolated what makes the Wraith unable to feed on my kind, the hard part is synthesizing a drug." She said, sitting back from her empty tray, glass in hand.

"What makes the Wraith unable to feed?" Jennifer asked.

"You know those things in my blood?" she nodded. "When a Wraith attempts to feed on my kind, the creatures attack it and completely block the feeding node, essentially creating a wall between the node and the Noctin system."

"And since those things make you what you are…"

"Exactly." M'Rhinna said. "The hard part is trying to create a synthetic version that will block the feeding process but won't turn the recipient into a Noctin. My people have very little knowledge about what's swimming through our bodies, we know what they can do, we just don't know how. They have to have at least some form of intelligence. I've thought of some form of nano-tech but those are too unstable."

"Since Ronon is Noctin enough to knock you up," Rodney said making them laugh. "Is he immune to the Wraith now?"

"No, he isn't." M'Rhinna said. "Only full Noctins have that ability. If a Wraith were to feed on him, gods forbid, the creatures would make a valiant effort to stop the process, but would ultimately fail mainly because he just doesn't have enough of them in his…" she suddenly stopped, her eyes widening."

"M'Rhinna? What is it?" Jennifer asked. "Is it the baby?"

"Something's wrong with Ronon." she said and leapt from the table, taking off at full tilt towards the gym.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43

The moment she got into the gym, her eyes fell on John kneeling by Ronon who was on the floor, clutching his head. John looked up at her when she reached them.

"He just collapsed; it's like when you were first trying to contact him." John said.

"He's under psychic attack." M'Rhinna said and instinctively tried to tap into her own abilities, but found them too weak. "Ronon, look at me!" she pried his hands away finding bloody tears tracking down his face. His pain filled eyes met hers and she was suddenly sharing in the assault on him.

"_How dare you get my wife pregnant!"_ the enraged voice said in their minds and M'Rhinna scraped up every bit of her telepathy.

"_Krell, stop! You'll kill me too!"_ she sent out and the pain immediately stopped. Darkness swept over both of them as they passed out.

M'Rhinna woke to someone stroking her hand and she opened her eyes, seeing that she was in the infirmary.

"What happened?" she managed to get out, struggling to sit up.

"We passed out." Ronon said and she looked over, seeing him lying on a gurney next to her.

"The baby…"

"Is fine." He finished. "Keller ran some tests and gave all three of us a clean bill of health. Explain to me what just happened."

"Krell is alive, I don't know how, but he is." M'Rhinna said, lying back against the pillows. "Why are we in the observation room?"

"Because I was 'psychically attacked' and you're pregnant." Ronon explained and she nodded. "Go back to where you said that your dead husband is really alive."

"I saw him die, I mean, I thought I saw him die, but he attacked you."

"How did he find me?"

"He must have been looking for me and when he found me, realized I was pregnant. He knew I could have only been by another Noctin so he went looking for the father and found you. It's common for my people to look for each other like that, but he was way out of line attacking you."

"He seemed pissed."

"I have no doubt he was, but he had ten thousand years to contact me and let me know he was still alive and he didn't. He can't blame me for moving on." She said and looked up at the balcony seeing John, Rodney, Sam and Teyla standing up there looking down at them. She raised her free hand in a short wave and settled back down into the pillows. M'Rhinna tried once more to tap into her telepathy but found it completely dormant. "_Krell."_ She thought, but the word stayed inside of her own mind.

"How powerful is he?" Ronon asked.

"By now? Extremely powerful. He's only a few thousand years younger than I am." M'Rhinna said closing her eyes.

"Do you think he'll try to attack me again?"

"No, I've linked my life with yours."

"What?"

"If you die, I die."

"Why would you do something like that?"

"It was the only way I could get him to back off. He may not like it that I've moved on, but he doesn't want me dead."

"Is there anyway to undo it?" Ronon asked but she shook her head.

"Once done it can't be undone."

"Like the Eternal Ceremony." He said and she nodded.

"I know that's the aftermath of the ceremony. Congratulations Ronon, we're partially married."

"Not the way I wanted it to happen, but okay." Ronon said and she smiled. "Does that mean I get to call you 'Mrs. Dex' now?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." She said and her smile widened at his small laugh. "They're probably listening, you know."

"Yeah I know."

"John may try to call you 'Mr. M'Rhinna Trin'."

"Just as long as he doesn't say it to my face, I'll just have to call him 'Alexander' for the rest of his life if he does." Ronon said and she cracked an eye open, looking up them. John was giving him the one finger salute and Teyla had her forehead on his shoulder, her body shaking with laughter. Ronon gave him one back and M'Rhinna laughed. The door slid open and Jennifer walked into the room.

"How are you two feeling?" she asked.

"Better." M'Rhinna said sitting up again and looking at her. "When can we leave?"

"You can leave as soon as I'm convinced that what happened won't happen again." Jennifer said.

"It won't." M'Rhinna said and Keller perked an eyebrow at her.

"You seem very confident of that." She said.

"That's because I know for a fact that it won't happen again." She said. "Can we leave?"

"I guess so, I'll go get your clothes."

"Thank you, Jennifer."


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44

M'Rhinna almost collapsed onto the bed in their room, laying face down on the blankets.

"Comfy?" Ronon asked as he locked the door and she made a sound into the animal skins.

"Yes." She said turning her head to the side so she could talk to him.

"I really didn't think to ask, but what if you die? Will I?"

"No. I linked my life with yours; you didn't link yours with mine. If I died, you would live." M'Rhinna explained and he nodded, making a disgruntled sound.

"I don't like that."

"You would survive."

"No I wouldn't." he said and she flipped onto her back and sat up, looking at him. "After Melena…after she died I wanted to die. It took me years to stop mourning her enough to move on. I wouldn't survive you dying, not really."

"Ronon, I…" her voice trailed off as she slid off the bed. She went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head over his heart.

"You're going to have my baby, M'Rhinna. If I lost both of you I…" he stopped as she put her fingers on his lips, looking up at him.

"You will never lose me." She said.

"Promise?" he asked against her fingertips.

"I promise." She said and went on her tiptoes, her lips replacing her fingers. "Let's not talk about this anymore?" he nodded. Taking his hand in her own she led him to bed and they lay down, Ronon settled against her side with his head on her chest, her fingers idly stroking his hair. Turning his face into her snow white skin, he inhaled deeply through his nose, his eyes closing as he took in the scent of her skin. Opening his eyes again, he lightly traced the pale blue veins just under her skin with his fingertips, following them up to the heavy pulse in her neck. There was a tugging in his mouth and he tasted blood. He ran his tongue over his teeth and found the canines slightly longer and deadly sharp.

"Rhin?" he asked and she looked at him. Her pupils dilated and her eyes widened when she saw his fangs.

"Oh, Ronon, I am so sorry." She said rubbing his cheek with the backs of her fingers.

"I'm not." He said and moved up, burying his face in her neck. M'Rhinna gasped as his tongue slid over her skin and he covered her body with his. "I won't take much, I don't want to hurt the baby." Her hands traced the muscles of his back and ran over his leather-clad buttocks as he continued to lap at her neck, bringing the vein to the surface. He kissed her neck once right before he sank his stunted fangs into the soft muscle of her throat.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45

At two months M'Rhinna was showing as much as a human would at three months. After a quick trip to Nocti in her first bimester, she now had the Noctin version of maternity clothes. They were dark, the tops having a waist that cinched under the bust, the material below pleated and loose. The skirts were flowing and long, swirling around her ankles when she moved. If she was feeling any kind of territorialism, she hid it well, still managing to seem pleasant to those around her. Ronon was a different story. He became increasingly agitated the longer he was away from her and John seriously considered benching him for missions that lasted longer than a couple of hours.

Since that day in the gym, Krell has left them alone, something that seemed to calm Ronon's nerves but made M'Rhinna nervous.

"He's leaving us alone! It's what you wanted!" Ronon said watching her pace back and forth in their room.

"I know him, he doesn't give up. Not this easily."

"Rhin, calm down, think of the baby."

"Ronon, the baby is fine, don't worry about the baby. The things in my blood are protecting it."

"You really can't tell if it's a boy or girl?"

"Not until he or she is born."

Rodney looked up as M'Rhinna walked into the Science Research and Development Laboratory, going over the computer and starting to work.

"Hi there." Rodney said.

"Hello." M'Rhinna said, not looking up from the computer.

"What's up?"

"I was going a bit crazy in my lab, so I decided I'd see what you were up to." She said looking at him briefly and then back down at the computer screen, bringing up his latest project. "Adapting the cloaking generators for the Daedelus?"

"I don't know why it didn't come to me before, if any ship needs a cloaking generator, it's the Daedelus."

"Sometimes the simplest of ideas can be the most elusive." She said giving him a small smile.

"Where's Ronon? Usually you two are attached at the hip." He said and she smiled.

"With John and Teyla on Menaria."

"They didn't tell me they were leaving!"

"It was a routine checkup. The Menarians were hit by the Wraith yesterday and Colonel Carter thought it would be a good idea to see if they need any help getting things back in order." She said and he made a sound. "Can the Puddle Jumpers fire drones while cloaked?" she asked, changing the subject.

"No, they can't. A problem I'm working on for the Daedelus."

"Because the Daedelus needs to be able to fire weapons while cloaked."

"Exactly." He said and they worked for a few minutes in silence. "Do Noctin ships have cloaking?" Rodney asked.

"Not in a way that you are familiar with. Noctin ships are similar to Wraith ships in the way that they are grown, not built, but unlike Wraith ships, Noctin vessels are able to blend into their surroundings."

"Camouflage?" Rodney asked.

"Sort of, it's more like…it's like the ships are able to become their surroundings. Sort of like the Earth lizard chameleon."

"Fascinating, I'd love to work on one." Rodney said.

"If we find one, you'll be the first to know." M'Rhinna said and they shared a smile before getting back to work. They worked almost in complete silence, moving around the lab easily, bouncing ideas off of each other.

"Can I ask you a question?" Rodney asked.

"Go for it." M'Rhinna said.

"Do you hate the Wraith because of what they did to you and your people, or is there another reason?" Rodney asked.

"Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. It's just something I picked up whenever you talk about them."

"You're normally not this intuitive to other peoples feelings, I'm shocked."

"I'm a bit surprised myself." Rodney said.

"To answer your question, yes and no. I hate the Wraith for what they did to me and my people, but I also have a natural hatred of them. You see, the creatures our two species evolved from, the Iratus bug for the Wraith and the Vampyra for my people once occupied the same planet. Since they both fed on the life force of those animals and people, naturally they competed for food. The Iratus bug was once able to feed on the Vampyra, but then one was born that the Iratus couldn't feed on. It lived to pass on the trait to its children and the ones that didn't have the trait died. My entire people as a species evolved from this one Vampyra and its children."

"What about the things in your blood? How do those fit in?"

"We don't know much about how they came to live in us, but we do have a theory. They were a parasite that infected that Vampyra and in return for a suitable habitat and plenty of food, the parasite gave it immunity from the Iratus bug. Over time the parasite evolved into a creature that we can not live without and that occurs naturally in our blood stream."

"So your hatred of the Wraith…"

"Is instinct, yes. No matter what our personal preference is, our two races will always be competing for food."

"Since Ronon is now part Noctin, what then?"

"His hatred of the Wraith will grow."

"I didn't think that was possible." Rodney said and she laughed. Her laugh cut off suddenly as she made a small sound of pain, pinching the bridge of her nose with her eyes closed tight. "You okay?"

"I just have a sudden headache, that's all." She said.

"Maybe you should go to the infirmary."

"Good idea. I'll go right now, be back in a bit." She turned and headed for the door but before she could reach it she collapsed to the floor. Rodney rushed to her and crouched down, turning her over onto her back and touching his radio.

"This is Doctor Rodney McKay, I need a medical team to the Science R and D lab now!"

Ronon and John ran to the infirmary the moment after they got back to the city, having received a message from Colonel Carter. Jennifer was waiting for them in the main room, her expression sad.

"What happened?" John asked.

"M'Rhinna passed out in Rodney's lab. We got her here as fast as we could but…" she trailed off, biting her lower lip nervously.

"But…" Ronon urged.

"I'm so sorry Ronon," Jennifer said. "She lost the baby."


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46

"It's my fault." Ronon said as he sat in a chair. "I'm not Noctin enough, I fed from her when she was pregnant it's my fault she lost the baby."

"Ronon, why don't you go talk to her?" Jennifer suggested. "She hasn't talked to anyone since she found out. I asked Dr. Faust, the new therapist to go in but M'Rhinna completely froze her out. She refuses to talk about it."

"Is she in the observation room?" Ronon asked.

"Yes." Jennifer said and Ronon stood without another word, going to the observation room.

M'Rhinna was curled up in a ball in the middle of the narrow bed, her back to the door.

"Rhin?" he asked but she didn't answer, she didn't even move or make any indication that she knew he was there. "Rhin, talk to me." Again, she didn't move, she was completely still. Ronon walked around to the other side of the bed, crouching down in front of her. Her eyes were open but unseeing and she was unresponsive when he reached over and touched her face tenderly. Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled over, soaking into her hair. Still she said nothing, and all he could do was gently wipe the tear tracks from her face with his thumb.

"Why is he doing this?" she asked finally, her voice barely below a whisper.

"Why is who doing what?" Ronon asked.

"Why is Krell doing this?" she asked again.

"What do you mean?"

"Krell is the reason why I lost the baby." She said. "He killed the baby."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do. Right before I passed out, I heard his voice in my head saying 'I won't let you have another mans baby'." M'Rhinna said. "He killed our baby." The dam finally broke and she started crying in great racking sobs. "It was a little girl! I could feel her just as she was dying! She wanted to meet you! She wanted to be your little girl! He killed our daughter!" Ronon held her in his arms and climbed onto the bed, holding her against him. Outwards he was calm, but inside he was seething with rage and hatred.

Sliding off the bed again, he picked her up in his arms and carried her sobbing form out of the infirmary, completely ignoring John and Jennifer.

He didn't see the people around him as he carried her through the hallways, his vision completely tunneled. Ronon was already picturing different ways of killed Krell, most them ending with him on the end of Ronon's sword, either gored with it or his head separated from his body.

The door to his room opened without him touching the sensor and he walked inside, immediately laying her down on the bed. Her sobbing had calmed, but she was still crying, her body shaking.

"He wasn't like this when we were married. He was kind and loving, he loved children and he always said that when the war was over, we would have a family." M'Rhinna said as Ronon got onto the bed behind her, his arm around her waist.

"It's been over ten thousand years, he's changed." Ronon whispered.

"Why did he kill our little girl? She never did anything to him, she wasn't even born yet."

"Like he said, he doesn't want you having my baby."

"I can feel everything coming back, all of my mental and physical abilities, they're all returning. I don't want them to; I want to be pregnant still!" Ronon turned her gently and held her against his chest, his heart breaking as hers was broken.

"_Krell." _She reached out with her mind.

"_Yes?"_ his tone was calm.

"_Why did you do it? You killed my child!"_

"_I killed that half-breeds bastard."_

"_You killed an innocent whose only wish was to be born and meet her father. Now that little girl is lost forever and that was your doing."_ Ronon felt as her body went hard as steel and he looked at her. The look in her eyes was murderous and frightening. _"You even attempt to harm me, Ronon, or any children we may have and so help me I will kill you."_

"_No, you won't. You love me."_

"_Any affection I had towards you died with my unborn child. I mean it, Krell, I will kill you."_

"_I could kill you and your little pet right now and you wouldn't be able to stop me."_

"_Really?"_ She said and sent the psychic bolt along the open pathway. M'Rhinna felt as it hit, his scream of unbelievable pain and torment echoing through her mind. She quickly put up a wall, effectively keeping him out. She came back to reality when Ronon pressed a kiss to her forehead. She softened and relaxed against him, suddenly more tired than she could ever remember.

"I'm tired, I need to sleep." She said.

"Then sleep. I'll be right here watching over you."

"I love you Ronon." She whispered and felt his lips once again on her forehead.

"I love you too." He said against her skin. "Sleep." Ronon pressed gentle kisses to her forehead and eyelids, his fingers weaving into her hair and massaging the base of her neck. Soon her breathing evened out and she was asleep.

M'Rhinna spent most of the following day in bed recovering. Ronon took bottles of Noctin water to her periodically throughout the day and she emerged around dinner time looking tired and sad. The moment she got to the mess hall Teyla swept her into a hug and she accepted it gratefully, hugging her back with tears welling in her eyes. M'Rhinna pulled away and when Teyla looked up at her, she saw that tears glittered in the others woman's eyes as well.

"I'll be fine, Teyla." She said, "You don't have to cry on my account."

"You're my sons godmother and you are my friend. The trauma you've suffered…"

"I'll be fine, really." She said and Teyla nodded. Looping her arm in hers, they went to the table and M'Rhinna sat down next to Ronon who draped his arm across the back of her shoulders, holding her to his side while Teyla sat next to John, who was bottle feeding David.

"So um…" John said awkwardly. "You two are partially married? I didn't really think of it what with your pregnancy and all."

"Technically, yes, he and I are partially married." M'Rhinna said. "There's a ceremony among my people that is everlasting. I don't know exactly what happens, but I know that in the aftermath of it, the two peoples' lives are forever linked. If one dies, so will the other."

"No divorce then?" John asked and she attempted a chuckle.

"No, no divorce. The couple is interviewed by a Tribunal and they decide if the two will undergo this ceremony. Krell and I were interviewed but we were denied."

"Who are the Tribunal?" Teyla asked leaning forward as it piqued her interest.

"The Tribunal was a group of three extremely powerful Noctins with the ability to see far into the future. In the case of this ceremony, they look to see if the couple will last, I guess they saw that Krell and I wouldn't." she said. "The Temple housing all Noctins that possessed this ability was destroyed in an attack by the Wraith in the early stages of the War. After that, the Noctins were officially at war with the Wraith."

"Officially?" John asked.

"The Noctins helped the Lanteans out from time to time, we supplied support, gave them addresses to planets of known Wraith laboratories."

"In return?" Ronon asked.

"We asked for nothing in return. We just wanted to help stop an overwhelming threat. Obviously we failed."


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47

"Hello, John." M'Rhinna said not bothering to look up from her computer.

"How'd you know it was me?" he asked.

"You have a very particular smell and gait, very easily recognizable." She said looking up at him. "What can I help you with?"

"Daedelus picked up a ship on radar on its normal route back to Atlantis."

"Lantean?" she asked, looking back down at her computer.

"No, and they didn't detect it until now, but…um…"

"But…"

"According to the information that Rodney got from the computers on Nocti, the ship is Noctin in design." Her head snapped up to look at him in disbelief and he nodded. "It sustained heavy damage, probably during the Wraith War, but it is definitely a Noctin Battle Cruiser. The Daedelus is keeping watch just in case a Wraith Cruiser comes to check it out, and there's a space gate about ten hours out from it and Colonel Carter gave us the go to take a Jumper and meet up with the Daedelus. How soon can you be ready?"

"Half an hour?"

"Meet us in the Jumper bay in thirty minutes." He said and turned to go.

"John." He stopped. "Thank you for coming to tell me."

"You're the only one who will be able to figure anything out on it."

The closer they got to the Daedelus the more M'Rhinna kept pacing in the back half of the Jumper, walking back and forth and in circles.

"Will you stop." Rodney said. "You're making me nauseous."

"So don't watch her, Rodney." Teyla said simply. David was of course back on Atlantis being watched over by Jennifer.

"It doesn't matter; I know she's doing it." He said and she made a disapproving sound, still pacing around the Jumper.

"We should be getting a visual any moment." John said and M'Rhinna moved to the front, standing next to Ronon with her hand on his shoulder. "Daedelus this is Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard in Jumper Three, please respond."

"_Jumper Three, dock in 302 bay. Daedelus out."_ A hatch opened in the bottom of the Daedelus and John piloted the Jumper inside, the hatch closing behind them. He settled it down gently and lowered the back hatch.

"The vessel is off the starboard bow." Colonel Caldwell said when they entered the bridge. M'Rhinna went to large bay windows, looking out at the dark ship to the right of the Daedelus. "Ms. Trin, do you recognize it?"

"It's the Noctin Ship Markessa." She said. "Named after our Goddess of War."

"Why are we just picking it up now? We must have flown this route thousands of times." Caldwell asked.

"The cloaking generator must have finally failed. A Noctin ship is programmed to take power from all systems, including life support if there are no life signs on board, to sustain cloaking while in stasis." She explained.

"Stasis?" Caldwell asked.

"Noctin ships are similar to Wraith ships in the way that they are grown, not built." Rodney explained quickly.

"When there is no neural interaction between the ship and its commander, it goes into stasis until it can be retrieved." She said.

"Who was her commander?" John asked.

"I was. This is my ship. The Wraith left her almost completely intact, why would they do that?" she seemed to think about that for a moment before she snapped her fingers. "Because they got what they wanted."

"You." Ronon said and she nodded.

"Certainly seems like." She said.

"How close do you have to be to connect with the ships neural mainframe?" Caldwell asked.

"I can try from here." She suggested and he nodded.

"Do so; I want to get on that ship as soon as possible."

"So do I Colonel, even more so than you." M'Rhinna ignored his response and closed her eyes, reaching out with her mind. The low pulse was almost too faint to pick up but when she did she followed it back to the ship. She suddenly gasped, holding her chest at the pain. "She's hurting so much."

"It can actually feel?" Rodney asked.

"Noctin ships are like children, Rodney, except they don't need to eat to sustain themselves." She explained shortly. "There, there sweetheart," she whispered to herself. "Momma's here. I'll make everything better."

"Sir, the ship is powering up. Life support is coming back online."

"Thank you Major." Caldwell said.

"Now," M'Rhinna whispered still to herself. "Let's get you all better." Vine like tendrils shot out from the ship, grabbing onto the bits of floating debris and pulling them back to the empty sections and they watched in awe as the ship healed itself, becoming whole once again. Once whole, it looked almost like a Wraith Hive ship but the left and right "wings" were longer and curved, sweeping inwards towards the dagger like center. "That's my good girl." She whispered smiling proudly. Her eyes opened and she looked at Colonel Caldwell. "I managed to get most of the primary and secondary systems online, but primary weapons and star-jump are still offline as are the transporters."

"What exactly was your mission out here?" Caldwell asked.

"Scientific exploration." She said. "There used to be a gas cloud here, it either moved or dissipated long ago. We were studying it when we were ambushed by the Wraith."

"You were conducting a scientific research mission in the middle of a massive war?" John asked.

"Work had to continue. We did what we could for the Lanteans, but they only accepted so much help."


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter 48

"Colonel Caldwell, sir?"

"Yes, Major?"

"There's a transmission coming from the ship." M'Rhinna turned to look at him.

"Play it." Colonel Caldwell said.

"Colonel, please don't." she pleaded but he was unsympathetic.

"It might be important."

"I know what it'll be. It's my distress call." She said but he completely ignored her.

"Major." Caldwell said and the Major pressed a button on the controls, the transmission playing on the bridges' external speakers.

"_This is Noctin Ship Markessa commanded by Donga Trin! We are under Wraith attack and requesting immediate assistance!"_ there was an explosion and M'Rhinna flinched. She grabbed Ronon's hand for support and he held onto it tight.

"_Donga!"_ another female voice added to the transmission. _"Forward weapons are offline!"_

"_Reroute power from secondary systems and get them back online!"_

"_M'Rhinna!"_ Krell's voice came over the speakers._ "Side wing decks have been completely destroyed!"_

"_Guide the ship through the healing process!"_

"_The sensors are showing Wraith onboard!"_ it was the same female voice from before.

"_If anyone can hear this, we need immediate assistance!"_ the sound of Wraith weapons fire came over the speakers. The M'Rhinna in the transmission gave out a cry of frustration and there were gunshots. A male yell of pain came out of the speakers. _"Krell!" _the transmission cut out into static and the Major shut it off.

"What was the point of that, Colonel? What possible information could you have gotten from that that you couldn't have gotten from asking me?" M'Rhinna asked, her hand sliding from Ronon's as she approached the Captain's chair. "How was that important?"

"There could have been information that…"

"No, you did that to hurt me, for what reason I don't know. So I believe the human term is: Go to hell. Now if you don't mind, I need to reconnect with my ship because while you were being an ass, I was bringing the transporters back online." Her eyes closed and she vanished in a flash of red light.

"Colonel, we're getting a radio call from the ship."

"Let it through and open a channel." Caldwell said and the Major pressed a control. "Ms. Trin…" a holographic image of M'Rhinna appeared on the bridge.

"_John, Teyla, Rodney and Ronon if you would please stand close together I will transport you aboard. Unless you prefer to take the Jumper, in that case I will ready the ship for your arrival. Up to you."_ M'Rhinna said, completely ignoring Colonel Caldwell.

"I think we'll take the Jumper." John said.

"_Very well, I am sending this radio frequency to the Jumpers' communications so it will recognize it. I will contact you when you are almost to the ship and direct you to the bay."_

"See you in a bit." John said and the holograph nodded.

"_I look forward to your arrival. I believe this ship would be Rodney's wet dream."_

"She's spending too much time around you." Rodney grumbled in John's direction and M'Rhinna laughed.

"_See you in a few. Markessa out."_ The holograph flickered and disappeared.

"Colonel, I think you should have a talk with her about chain of Command." Caldwell said and John looked at him.

"Permission to speak freely?" John asked.

"Go ahead."

"Not only is she over ten million years old but she has the highest rank possible in Noctin military, if you were to line that up with our Military, you would be answering to her." John said.

"M'Rhinna respects to those who earn it, and by that little stunt you just did with the distress call, you didn't earn it and never will." Ronon said, his voice carrying a snarl. "Can we go now, John?"

"Yeah. Colonel Caldwell, we'll contact you when we get there." He said and the four of them walked off the bridge.

John piloted the Jumper closer to the ship and the Heads Up Display came up, M'Rhinna's image on it.

"_I see you on the proximity sensors, pilot the Jumper around to the other side of the ship and I'll open the bay doors. You won't miss them."_ She said.

"Got it." John said, swinging the Jumper around.

"_I'll meet you there. Markessa out."_ The HUD vanished and John started looking for an open hatch as he came around to the other side of the ship. An opening appeared as the vine like tendrils parted.

"That is too cool." John said as he piloted it inside, there was a slight resistance in the threshold, but he entered the spacious area easily. M'Rhinna was waiting in the bay, unaffected by the open door. Several dozen crafts sat in lanes on either side of the bay and he made a point to look at them after they landed. The other three were already out of their seats before the Jumper came to a full landing and he lowered the back hatch.

They met a smiling M'Rhinna and John let out a low whistle as he looked around.

"Snazzy place you got here." He said and her smile widened.

"Welcome to the Noctin ship Markessa."


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter 49

"How are you not sucked out into the void of space?" Rodney asked and she laughed.

"The ship doesn't want me to die." M'Rhinna said. "You know that resistance you felt, John? When you first reached the bay?"

"Yeah…" John said hesitantly.

"That was the ship."

"Shielding?"

"No, the shielding is down. That was the ship herself. She recognized you from my memory and let you in. She is also protecting us from the vacuum of space." She said.

"What?" John asked and she gave him a sly smile.

"Look behind you." She said and they all looked over their shoulders. The bay door was still open.

"That's just cool." Rodney said. "So the ship has a consciousness?"

"Yes. When a Noctin is made a Donga, they are grown a ship and in order for there to be a seamless connection between the two, the Donga is required to submit a genetic sample, blood, tissue and the like. It took a few years, but Markessa was grown from my DNA."

"So she's your…child?" Teyla asked.

"More like the ship version of me." She said.

"What're these?" John asked, gesturing to the crafts along side of them.

"Fighter ships." She said simply and they followed her over to one. It resembled a Wraith dart somewhat, but had the same shape as the ship itself. "Unfortunately, all of them are accounted for. The Wraith attack was too sudden, we weren't able to launch fighters before the bay doors were damaged and couldn't open."

"How is that unfortunate?" Teyla asked.

"Because if we had been able to launch fighters, that battle may have had a different outcome." M'Rhinna said.

"Do you mind if I take one out sometime?" John asked and she nodded.

"I knew you'd ask so I prepped one for you by entering your genetic code into its system and sharing my memories of you, it'll recognize you now and let you fly it." She said.

"It will _let_ me fly it?"

"The fighter crafts very much have minds of their own. They only let extremely experience pilots fly them and I shared your personnel file and mission reports that I had just so happened to have read a while back with it. It's expecting you so don't keep it waiting, they aren't very patient." She said.

"Well in that case, which ones mine?" he asked and she led them to one.

"I prepped this one for you." The top parted and John peeked inside at the controls. The chair was almost like a motorcycle seat and there were holes in the otherwise bare control panel.

"How do I get in?" no sooner had the last word left his mouth that the wing closest to him lowered until the edge touched the ground, becoming a ramp. "It can hear me?"

"More like feel what you're going to say." She said and he climbed up into the fighter, sitting in the seat. The way it was positioned made him lean forward, almost laying on his stomach.

"How do I see once I'm inside it?"

"It'll show you." She said. "See those holes? Slide your arms into them; you'll feel controls at the end. You might want to give me your jacket first." He sat up, handed Ronon his P-90 and removed his vest and jacket, a black t-shirt underneath. Laying back down, he slid his arms into the holes and shuddered.

"That feels _weird_." He said. "I feel hand held controls."

"Wrap your hands around them."

"Okay." The openings suddenly formed around his arms. "It's like I'm wearing living gloves. I swear I can feel a heartbeat."

"You probably can, they are alive you know." M'Rhinna said. The fighter lifted to hover silently a few feet above the deck.

"Did I do that?" John asked.

"No."

"How do I communicate with the ship?"

"Think it and it will hear you." His eyes closed and the ship did a smooth banking circle around the bay, coming back around to its starting position.

"Now that's a user interface." John said opening his eyes.

"Do you want to take it out?" M'Rhinna asked.

"Can I?"

"Go for it." She said and the top sealed. The craft swept past them and flew out the open bay doors. "We'll be able to talk to him on the bridge." She said with a fond smile and led them from the bay. Rodney oohed and ahhed over pretty much everything on the way and after a while wouldn't move an inch until M'Rhinna promised that he and his team could go over every inch of the ship with their equipment.

They entered the bridge and the opaque wall in front of them cleared showing them an uninterrupted view of space and the Daedelus. The screen took up the entire wall so it looked as if there was an open doorway. Rodney went right up to it and ran his finger tips down the surface. His mind kept telling him that there was nothing there, but what he touched was very solid and almost warm.

"John, can you hear me? Just think and I'll be able to hear you." M'Rhinna asked after going to the main control and pushing her hands into the main ports. "Very good." She said. "I'll transfer your communication to the external network."

"_Holy crap holy crap holy crap!"_ John's enthusiastic voice came over hidden speakers and she smiled.

"He's managing the neural network well." She said to the rest of them.

"_I thought the Puddle Jumpers were user friendly. I barely have the thought formed before it does it."_ He said.

"John, can you hear me?" Teyla asked.

"_I just heard Teyla's voice in my head."_ John said.

"Yes, that's because I transferred you to the external network, the others can communicate with you as well." M'Rhinna said.

"_That's just odd."_

"_Noctin ship Markessa." _ It was the Daedelus. _"We have picked up an unidentified craft, and we just wanted to make sure all was okay."_ There was a pause.

"Yes, that's Colonel Sheppard in one of the fighters; he wanted to take it out for a spin." M'Rhinna said.

"_That sounds like the Colonel. We won't blow it out of the sky."_

"Much appreciated." M'Rhinna said. "Markessa out." There was another pause. "John, why don't you come on back?"

"_I was just about to try out the weapons on some space rocks that are floating around."_

"You can do that later, come on back. I have the star-jump engines back online and I want to get back to Atlantis and give her a well needed rest." She said.

"_Okay, I'm on my way back."_ They watched as the small fighter swung around and disappeared out of view of the screen.

"And he's back on board." M'Rhinna said.

"What exactly will happen when you initiate the star-jump engines?" Rodney asked going up to the main control panel and she smiled at him as the floor under her lit up.

"Daedelus, this is the Markessa. I'm about to initiate a star-jump back to the city. We'll see you there." She said as the Atlantis gate address came up on the screen.

"_We'll leave the light on for you."_

"Actually, we'll leave it on for you. Markessa out." Her smile grew and the screen went opaque. There was a slight wrenching feeling and the screen went clear. Outside was a planet and on the surface, they could see the city. "Atlantis, this is the Noctin ship Markessa commanded by Donga Trin. Requesting permission to land."

"_M'Rhinna!" _It was Sam. _"We weren't expecting you for about a week with the Daedelus."_

"Noctin star-jump drives are more…effective than hyper-drive engines."

"_Apparently."_ Sam said. _"Land on the South Pier, we'll be waiting for you."_ An image of the city came up and expanded on the South Pier.

"Sam." Rodney spoke up. "It's Dr. Rodney McKay."

"_Yes, Rodney, I recognized the sound of your voice. What is it?"_

"Can you have my team waiting for us on the dock? M'Rhinna's letting me go over the ship."

"Rodney, can you give the ship a few hours of sleep? I had her do a lot today." M'Rhinna requested.

"But…"

"She's like a child, Rodney. She needs her rest."

"Okay, but only a few hours."

"Eight hours."

"Four."

"Eight hours, Rodney." She said, her voice going hard.

"Okay, eight hours." Rodney said and backed away from the pedestal.

"Atlantis, we'll be landed in a few minutes. Markessa out." The ship started to descend and passed easily through the atmosphere, landing smoothly by the South Pier. Vine like tendrils shot out from the ship and anchored to the city, steadying the ship.

"How do we get out?" John asked, coming up onto the bridge.

"Let me tuck the ship into bed and I'll show you." M'Rhinna said and closed her eyes. The lights in the ship started to dim and the engines powered down. She gently took her hands out of the ports and went to the center of the bridge. "If you'll join me please." She said and they stood beside her. There was a feeling of weightlessness and they were standing on the dock.

"Transporters?" John asked and she smiled again.

"Transporters." She said.

"That's just cool."


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter 50

M'Rhinna collapsed onto the bed, determined to sleep just as her ship was.

"Tired?" Ronon asked and she made a noise.

"It's been a long and exhausting day." She said.

"Yes, it has." He said and walked over to the bed. "On your stomach and take off your shirt."

"Yes, sir." She said and did as he said, laying on her stomach with her face between the pillows, nude from the waist up. He sat next to her hip and laid his hands on her skin. "Holy crap." She exclaimed as he began to massage her back.

"You have been hanging out with John too much." He said as he ran his hands up and down her back on either side of her spine, manipulating the muscles into relaxation.

"How come I haven't had you do this sooner?" she asked.

"I don't know, all you had to do was ask."

"I'm going to start asking." She said and groaned as he worked on the muscles of her low back with his thumbs, his hands around her waist. His hands slid up and into her hair, cradling her neck and lightly pressing his thumbs into the muscles of her neck and shoulders. He spent extra time on the curve of her neck seeing as it tended to tense up and she whimpered in appreciation. Taking her heavy fall of hair in his hands, he twisted it gently and set it above her head so he had better access to the nape of her neck.

"M'Rhinna?" he asked after a while but she didn't answer him. "Sweetie?" he bent over her and pushed the pillow away slightly. Ronon smiled a small smile as he saw her sleeping peacefully and he laid a kiss to the nap of her neck, covering her with a blanket.

M'Rhinna and Ronon were already at their usual table when John, Teyla, Rodney, and Jennifer joined them the next morning. She was leaning against him with her head on his shoulder, a languid smile on her face.

"You look happy." John said as they sat down with their food.

"Ronon gave me a massage last night after we got back." She said and sighed happily. "The man is an artist with his hands." Ronon didn't say anything, but turned an adorable shade of pink. "And then I promptly fell asleep."

"Well of course." Teyla said. "I always do when John gives me massages."

"I find that men that are good at close combat fighting and piloting have the most skillful hands." M'Rhinna said. "Must have something to do with the intricate details and coordination of those activities."

"Absolutely." Teyla said. "It has to."

"Rodney doesn't give me massages." Jennifer said pouting and Rodney looked at a loss of what to do.

"Do you want me to?" he asked.

"It'd be nice if you offered every once in a while." She said.

"I really don't think Rodney would be very good." M'Rhinna said.

"What do you mean?" Jennifer asked.

"Massage is about delicate movements and soft touches." She said and Jennifer made a sound.

"You're right, he probably wouldn't be very good at it." She said shaking her head. "Rodney is about as delicate as a wrecking ball."

"Although, one might say the same about Ronon." Teyla said.

"Very true." M'Rhinna said. "But his hands are masterpieces. He can make my body sing."

"_Really?_" Jennifer asked, interested in hearing more and M'Rhinna nodded.

"Isn't it just great when they talk about us like we're not here?" John asked sarcastically.

"Oh I love it." Ronon said and the ladies laughed at them.

"We do it because we care about you." M'Rhinna said leaning against Ronon's shoulder again. He looked down at her fondly and kissed the top her head.

"You make us look bad." John said to Ronon and he shrugged the shoulder that wasn't being occupied.

"So, Teyla," M'Rhinna said looking at her. "Where's David?"

"With Kanaan on the mainland, he and I agreed on a joint custody now that David can be fed from a bottle. He has him for three days out the month." Teyla said and M'Rhinna connected easily with the boy.

"_How goes it, little one?"_ she asked.

"_Boring, Kanaan keeps trying to make me laugh, but he's just not funny."_ He thought back and she found herself laughing out loud making them look at her oddly.

"I'm talking to David. He is not thrilled that he's there and is giving Kanaan a hard time." She said.

"That's my boy." John said proudly and M'Rhinna reached across the table, laying her hand on his arm. There was a rush of warmth inside her as John's love for David filled her and she sent the feeling over their mental pathway, hearing his giggle of delight in her mind. "What was that all about?" he asked as she retracted her arm.

"Oh nothing." She said and stood as Rodney finished eating. "Ready? The ship woke up about an hour ago."

"I thought you'd never ask." He said standing also. "Give me a few minutes to get everything together?"

"Of course. I'll be on the ship, just radio me when you and your team are on the dock."

"Got it." Rodney said and left the mess hall. M'Rhinna turned to walk away also, but stopped, turning back around and coming up behind Ronon.

"One more thing." She whispered to him and kissed the Specialist tattoo on the side of his neck making him smile. _"I love you."_

"_I love you too."_


End file.
